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By Frank Channing Haddock, M.S., Ph.D. 

Author of “Power of Will,” “Business Power,” “The Culture of 
Courage,” “Power for Success,” “Practical Psychology,” Etc., Etc. 


A (Companion-look 
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Constructive Individuality has no limits of 
development , therefor I demand the unfold- 
ment of my unknown and tinused capacities. ’ ’ 


First Edition. 


1916 


(Cltr Peltnn publishing (Company, 

(L. N. Fowler & Co., 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, London.) 


















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Copyright, 191b, by 





A. J. BARNES and MRS. HELEN BENTON. 
Administrators of Estate of 
FRANK C. HADDOCK. 
Alhambra.. California. 


Copyright, 1916, 

Registered at Stationers Hall, 
London. England. 







All rights reserved. 










PRESS OF 

J. F. Tapley Co., 


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NEW YORK. 



MAY -6 1916 



© Cl. A 4 2 8 8 8 0 





“ you are invited to remember that it you are to lead, 
you must make the most of yourself, that is, develop all 
your power, expand person in you to its greatest, and 
unfold your own completest individuality ” 




PREFACE 


The author originally intended that the pages of 
this book should be a part of the work entitled, “ Prac¬ 
tical Psychology.” It was seen, however, that this 
would make a. volume altogether too long, and the plan 
of a two-volume book was for a time entertained. 
Finally it was decided to give each work a separate 
title, since they so greatly differ in style and subject 
matter, and since purchasers would then be enabled 
to order them singly. 

Nevertheless, “ Creative Personality ” is a practical 
study in psychology. While it deals with the mental 
elements, it takes a broader scope than that which 
usually obtains in works on mental science. Its con¬ 
ceptions are not found in the schools, and it is be¬ 
lieved that they are fresh and more or less unique, and 
that their practical applications are new and very far 
reaching. The reader is invited to keep in mind all 
the way through the study the climacteric goal, the 
preparation in any phase or stage of life for any suc¬ 
ceeding phase or stage, and the growth of the self in 
this world for success in any other world. We offer 
this conception as a purely business proposition. 


Person changes, but true person can never 
die, that is, cease to exist as person. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Chapter I. Preliminary Definitions and 


Statements . 1 

Chapter II. A Study in Reality. 7 

Chapter III. Reality of the Human Self 

and of Worlds. 63 

Chapter IV. Person . 105 

Chapter V. Experience. 157 

Chapter VI. Laws of Growth . 219 

Chapter VII. The Instruments of Person¬ 
ality . 281 

Chapter VIII. Goal of the Self. 340 

Chapter IX. Completed Self for all Stages 

of Existence. 380 














Thought is the one supreme power by which 
the self is to attain its proper goal. 


LAW: Every Action Demands an Actor. 


CHAPTER I. 

PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS AND STATEMENTS. 

O UR discussion demands certain Preliminary 
Considerations that are fundamental, and 
which, let us hope, will lead to a better under¬ 
standing of the subject before us. These considera¬ 
tions suggest, first of all, specific definitions of some 
of the greater words employed in unfolding our 
thought, as follows: 

We define Psychology as the Science of the Facts, 
Principles and Laws of the Knowing Human Self. 
This definition itself requires further definitions of its 
chief ideas. 

Science is Systematized Knowledge of Facts, Prin¬ 
ciples and Laws. 

A Fact is any sort of Existence — anything that ac¬ 
tually is. 

A Principle is That which determines an Existence 
to be What it is, 

A Law is a Way that an Existence has of Being or 
of Doing. 

The act of Knowing involves various things, such 
as: “ to apprehend,” ad and prehendo, “ to draw to; ” 
“ to comprehend,” “ to draw or pass around; ” and to 
“ intensively understand,” “ to apprehend the inner de- 


2 


Creative Personality 


tails of an object of thought.” We apprehend a thing, 
a movement, etc.,—any object of thought,— when we 
just make it out, sense it, perceive it as a general 
whole, and this whether it be a material thing, a move¬ 
ment or an idea or a mental picture. We comprehend 
when we apprehend all around an object of thought. 
And we have intensive understanding when we ap¬ 
prehend the whole object, within as well as without. 
An ape may apprehend your actions, a child may com¬ 
prehend them, but only a philosopher can intensively 
understand them — know them “through and 
through.” 

These various processes of knowing resolve, on 
analysis, into exactly one thing. They all consist of 
getting meaning out of and about existences. 

Getting meanings is just that: knowing. Knowing 
is just that: getting meanings. 

The essence of meaning is this: We think an ex- » 
istence into place in relation to our thoughts concern¬ 
ing other existences. Meaning, then, is relation of one 
thought to other thoughts in our mental life. In get¬ 
ting the meaning of a strange word, for example, we 
are compelled properly to place or relate every word 
employed in the definition to our thoughts of other 
things or words, and until we do this, the meaning is 
not clear to us. Meanings may be incorrect as re¬ 
gards the thoughts of authorities, but they are our own 
if the thought involved is properly placed in our 
minds; and meanings may be incoherent because not 
consistently or logically related to the balance of our 
mental life; yet they are meanings to us for the reason 


Preliminary Definitions and Statements 3 

that the ideas concerned are related together in some 
way that seems right to the mind entertaining them. 
Meanings, thus, are the relations that our thoughts 
sustain to one another. Until this relating process 
goes on a mind could have no meanings. Nothing has 
meaning to a mind which comes into no relation to 
its thoughts. A self that could have but one sensa¬ 
tion or idea could never get that sensation or idea. 

We see, therefore, that to apprehend , to compre¬ 
hend , to intensively understand is to think various 
meanings of existences. 

Hence, to know is to get meanings consistently or 
logically related to our thought. 

These preliminary definitions bring us on to a dis¬ 
cussion of the foundation of this book, to-wit, Reality. 

General Analysis of Reality. 

Now, a thought is an active process of the self 
that constitutes meaning. But all thought involves an 
Activity and an Object of that activity. This general 
fact reveals to us a line of cleavage between the 
Knowing Self and the known Not-Self. Analysis 
thus establishes various General and Particular kinds 
of thought-objects which our mental constitution insists 
upon as actualities. And from this simple considera¬ 
tion we determine a convenient division of Reality, as 
follows: 

1. Reality of the Knowing Self. 

2. Reality of the Knowable Universe. 

These general observations further analyze Reality 
into — 


4 


Creative Personality 


3. Reality of Facts — which includes Principles 
and Laws regarded as Facts. 

4. Reality of Things, which in part constitute 
Facts, and are determined by Principles and expressed 
in Laws. 

5. Reality, therefore, of Doing, since all exist¬ 
ences incessantly do, in one way and another; thus, of 
activities, whether of material or of non-material ex¬ 
istences; and of movements of things purely material. 
The Reality of Doings obviously includes that of 
Forces. 

6. Reality, for the reasons above indicated, of 
Energy and Power. 

7. Reality, not only of a Self, but of the essence 
of a Self. 

The Self is here understood to mean any finite Self 
and the Infinite Self. 

To summarize: We have Reality of a Knower and 
a Known. From the human point of view this means 
the Self, its activities and the Universe in which it 
lives. From the point of view of an Infinite Intelli¬ 
gence this means the Self and its activities and the 
expressions thereof in the Universe and its finite in¬ 
telligences. 

We have, then, Fundamental Reality, which under¬ 
lies all forms of actual existences as their Ground and 
Source, and is eternal and qualitatively infinite. 

Evidently this Fundamental Reality manifests in, 
and constitutes, all the existences that we know. The 
resulting manifestations may be indicated as fol¬ 
lows : 


Preliminary Definitions and Statements 5 

In the universal ether; 

In certain conditions of the ether, such as “ stresses/’ 
“ strains,” undulations, vibrations, waves, rays, which 
exhibit in electricity, magnetism, light, etc.,— all forms 
of non-material force; 

In matter, or certain so-called chemical elements, 
their electrons, atoms, and inorganic compounds, to¬ 
gether with all forms of material force; 

In all forms of plant organizations and their life 
phenomena; 

In all forms of animal organization and their life 
phenomena; 

In psychic factor, which may appear in plant or¬ 
ganisms, but seems to distinguish animal organisms 
as of a “ higher ” order, and is the essential element 
in the development of animal life toward the human 
self and the human person; 

In the human self, which is the first “ budding forth ” 
of psychic factor in its unfoldment toward human per¬ 
son, and, as such result, creates human body and hu¬ 
man mind; 

In the human mind, which is an organized system 
of activities of the self in knowing; 

In human person, which is an organized system of 
the activities of Reality manifesting through the human 
psychic factor, the human self and the human body 
to the ends of knowing and development. 

These manifestations of Reality tend toward two 
finales: 

The complete unfoldment of all the possibilities of 
person making toward success. 


6 


Creative Personality 


The complete unfoldment of Reality in a Universe 
making toward universal harmony and happiness. 

The discussions that follow this chapter will carry 
this idea of a Fundamental Reality through the chap¬ 
ters, and will seek to indicate lines of thought and 
methods appropriate to the development of person in 
their own interest and the great finale, universal har¬ 
mony and happiness. 


LAW: No Less Than Infinite System of 
Activities Can Support Itself. 


CHAPTER II. 

A STUDY IN REALITY. 

W E come, now, to discuss the kinds of Reality 
referred to in the preceding chapter, and do 
so by discriminating between that Reality 
which means simply Activity and that which means all 
actuality possible and factual, which constitutes the 
Cause and Sustaining Ground of such actuality. 

The former phase of Reality may be sufficiently 
described as Phenomena; the latter Essential Being 
which reveals in phenomena. 

It is evident that all the forms of existence which 
we know or to which we give meaning (whether we 
comprehend or exhaustively understand or not) must 
have some Ground, Cause or Source apart from them 
as phenomena. 

Now, at this point it is necessary to avoid slipping 
unconsciously into a very easy error. We might say 
that, if there are forms of matter, there must be some 
universal Matter which assumes these forms. We 
might go on to affirm that, if there are various forms 
of force, there must be some universal Force appearing 
in such forms. Then we might continue by declaring 
that, if there are innumerable examples of life, there 
must be some universal Life springing forth in those 
examples. Finally, we might conclude that, if there 
7 


8 


Creative Personality 


are countless finite intelligences, there must be some 
universal Intelligence revealing itself in these finite 
intelligences. This reasoning would force us to say 
that every material object is universal Matter, when 
we know that each kind of matter is itself alone and 
not the whole of matter; that every phase of force 
is the universal Force, when we are sure that elec¬ 
tricity is not heat, not light, etc., and is not the whole 
Force known by us; that every individual man and 
woman is the whole Humanity or the Infinite in its 
essential sameness, when we know that no individual 
can be the Infinite Intelligence. Hence, the statements 
at the beginning of this paragraph are not here offered 
as the truth in the matter. 

What we do affirm in the present connection is this 
— and it is fundamental both to the facts and to our 
thought. If there are various forms of matter, or 
force, and of intelligence, there must be some universal 
Ground and Source which sustains such forms and 
which reveals in and through them. 

It is here distinctly declared that every individual 
object of existence is solely itself and no other and by 
no means metaphysically identical with the universal 
Ground and Source that expresses in and through it 
and so sustains it. Your thought, for example, is itself 
and not you, although you sustain and create it. Ma¬ 
terial things, such as the chemical elements and com¬ 
pounds, are always distinct from one another and are 
never some universal existence. Other material ob¬ 
jects, like a tree, a crystal of quartz, an animal, etc., 
are exactly what they are and exclusively what they 


A Study in Reality 


9 


are, never some universal stuff unlike them or apart 
from them. The matter that is in a tree is that tree’s 
matter, none other. Matter exists as definite kinds of 
matter, not some mysterious universal material sub¬ 
stance which takes the form of such kinds. The pos¬ 
sibility of all the kinds of matter does obtain, but 
matter itself exists only in the kinds themselves. The 
universal matter is merely a general thought employed 
for mental convenience. It has no other reality. 

The same considerations hold good with reference 
to force. The scientific words, “ conservation ” and 
“ correlation,” as applied to force mean that conditions 
in which heat or light, etc., appear may be changed so 
that one phenomenon may appear and another result. 
Each force-manifestation is itself alone, and never can 
become a different force. No exhibition of force con¬ 
tains within itself all the elements of all the forces 
known. There is never any Universal Force in evi¬ 
dence; there are only individual forces in evidence 
when they appear, and these have no existence until 
they do appear. The Universal Force is an idea in¬ 
vented for mental convenience; it has no other ex¬ 
istence. 

Precisely so is it with animal and vegetable life. 
An “ entity ” which we call “ life ” undoubtedly exists, 
but in specific forms only. Life is probably some sort 
of chemical reaction, or the result of chemical reaction. 
But chemical reaction is the action of material ele¬ 
ments upon one another under certain conditions, or, 
phenomenally speaking, the result of such action. 
There is certainly no universal action here, except in 


10 


Creative Personality 


the sense that such action is everywhere and always 
going on. We will look in vain for any Universal 
Chemism. We will look in vain for the Universal 
Life. All chemical reactions are individual and spe¬ 
cific. So, all examples of life are specific and indi¬ 
vidual, and none other. We know and we can conceive 
of no life apart from particular cases of life. 

Logically speaking, we might go on here and affirm 
that there is no Universal Humanity making itself evi¬ 
dent in individual human beings. Each man is himself 
alone, not some larger human substance expressing in 
him. The word, “ Humanity,’' is a general term em¬ 
ployed as a symbol in our thought for an idea repre¬ 
senting all sorts of human beings. The phrase, “ Uni¬ 
versal Intelligence,” may signify an Existence universal 
and infinite, but in the logical formula of the immedi¬ 
ately preceding paragraphs, is not some mysterious 
Universal Stuff out of which men and women are 
formed. 

We say, then, that the Ground and Source of all 
known existences of the nature of matter, force, life 
and human nature is never to be conceived as Uni¬ 
versal Matter, or Universal Life, or Universal Hu¬ 
manity. 

Nevertheless, it is impossible to think of matter, 
force, life and the human intelligence as having no 
other Ground and Source than themselves. Matter, 
force, chemism, life and that chemical action which 
gives us bodies and brains do seem to have a certain 
recognized Ground and Source in the Universal Ether 
of science. And here are some very significant facts 


A Study in Reality 


11 


concerning this universal Medium. It appears to per¬ 
vade all space; it seems to contain the possibility of all 
things; it discloses no differences in its nature any¬ 
where— is the same throughout and identical with 
itself, however manifested. 

If the ether is material, we do not know the fact. If 
the ether is non-material, we do not know that fact as 
well. Nevertheless, it explains, and is probably a true 
existence. 

If the ether is a true existence, the necessity that 
we should assume some Ground and Source for the 
material Universe is established in fact. But if there 
are existences in the Universe that are not material in 
the ordinary sense of the word, this establishment is 
only an aid, a suggestion in its very logical nature that 
we should continue our search for the Universal 
Ground and Source, even beyond the medium, the 
ether. 

For, what is true of matter, force, chemism, life, 
must be also true of the ether. There is no ether ex¬ 
cept in an universal-individual sense. The ether is 
everywhere itself, and none other. We know no uni¬ 
versal Ether-Stuff which manifests in the ether. 
Wherever the ether exists, it is, and nowhere else. 
The medium is individual, specific ether. We look in 
vain for some universal Sub-Ether out of which our 
medium has sprung. 

Nevertheless, again, this conclusion does not relieve 
the mental situation in the least. The ether itself calls 
for some Ground and Source, as does every other 
existence save an infinite one. 


12 


Creative Personality 


This demand springs from our unchangeable mental 
conviction that wherever there is an action there is an 
actor. Our scientific knowledge of the ether forces 
us to hold that it can not be the Ground and Source 
of all things, material and non-material, unless we dis¬ 
miss that scientific knowledge and make the medium 
something entirely different from the scientific con¬ 
ception of it that now prevails; in other words make it 
infinite, eternal and the sole reason of its own existence. 
But the ether known to us has the qualities of a 
product, not a cause, an instrument, not a finality in 
itself. 

The axiom that Every Action implies an Actor, and 
the inadequacy both of matter (since there is no uni¬ 
versal Matter-Stuff) and the ether to constitute Ground 
and Source of the Universe, drive us to assume as a 
complete logical resort for all existences some Reality 
capable of satisfying both the mind we use in thinking 
and the total facts made known to us in the Universe 
about us. We are confronted by the innumerable 
Many and the unlimited Varying. Yet we all believe 
in the solidarity of the Universe. One abiding Reality 
there must be in which the Universe lives and moves 
and has its being. 

These considerations deduce three conclusions which 
we may call 

The Fundamental Laws of Reality. 

First Law. The Ground-Reality basing all ex¬ 
istences is Infinite, Abiding and Indivisible: Infinite, 
since it must be capable of unlimited independent ac- 


A Study in Reality 


13 


tion from within, and no other existence conceivable 
can accomplish such achievement; Abiding, because 
this only could make possible unlimited expression of 
the Infinite Nature; Indivisible, for the reason that 
division would be a contradiction both of thought and 
of fact, yielding two or more Infinites. 

Second Law. This Infinite, Abiding and Indivis¬ 
ible Reality phases or manifests to us in matter and 
its forms, force and its actions, non-matter and power 
and activities thereof. The Reality grounds every 
kind of matter, every kind of force, every kind of 
intelligence and the power and action thereof. 

The Infinite and Eternal Reality is, in every legiti¬ 
mate way of thinking about it, always and throughout 
the same and identical with itself. On no other basis 
could it manifest the diverse phenomena which con¬ 
stitute the Universe. To say this in another way: 
Infinite and Eternal Reality can not in any sense differ 
in its essence throughout, since difference in any sense 
throughout would destroy universal essential oneness 
or basic unity in the Universe. It does not seem nec¬ 
essary to argue for the solidarity of the Universe, once 
the preceding considerations are thoroughly under¬ 
stood. 

Third Law. The Infinite and Eternal Reality con¬ 
tains within itself the Sole Reason for its own Ex¬ 
istence. To ask for the Reason for the Infinite is 
either to ask for another Infinite or to deny that it is 
Infinite. When we grasp the notion of an Infinite — 
not to comprehend it, but to sense it in some adequate 
way for thought — we place the idea first and funda- 


14 


Creative Personality 


mental to every other thought of any conceivable ex¬ 
istence as actual. The idea covers, adequately and 
comprehensively. We need no other explanation of 
an Infinite. The Sole Reason for the Infinite must be 
Itself — self-originating and self-sustaining simply be¬ 
cause it is Infinite. 

Thus, we may now define the Reality which con¬ 
stitutes the Ground and Source of all existences as: 
That Which is Eternally and Qualitatively Infinite, 
always the same throughout and identical with itself, 
and contains within itself the Sole Reason for its own 
Being. 

Since we now have an idea of Reality in its funda¬ 
mental sense, and also innumerable existences grounded 
therein, the only apparent explanation for the latter 
is the supposition or conclusion that they are differ¬ 
ing phenomenal manifestations of the former. This 
difference of manifestation must not be confounded 
with identity of being and its expression. The Reality 
manifests in various ways, but no manifestation can 
as such be identical with the manifestor. The differ¬ 
ence of manifestation must also not be confounded 
with division of the Reality. Infinite Reality knows 
no division. Division separates into parts, but vary¬ 
ing differences of manifestation or phenomena simply 
mean varying activities of the one Reality. Substan¬ 
tial Being (the Infinite Reality) is one; its expressions 
in existences are many. If we ask how the one Uni¬ 
versal Reality can give the innumerable many of the 
Universe, we are really asking how the human self 
can be one and yet act in countless ways. Each person 


A Study in Reality 


15 


holds himself to be an unity; yet knows very well that 
his activities — all phenomenal manifestations of him¬ 
self — are innumerable. 

These suggestions bring us on in our discussion as 
follows: 

Reality and Its Ways of Being and Doing. 

We are unable to conceive of any existence which 
is totally devoid of certain ways of being and doing. 
Every existence is a system of activities, and some of 
these activities constitute its ways of being, while 
others constitute its phenomena — its ways of doing 
in the sense of phenomenal expression of its nature. 
Concerning such ways of being and doing we suggest 
certain considerations, as follows: 

First Consideration. 

These ways define themselves to our thought as 
Activities and analyze into Activities constituting Pure 
Being and Activities constituting Phenomena. 

The ways of doing that solely concern Infinite 
Reality’s Being are in the nature of the case unknow¬ 
able by us in any direct sense, except as they may be 
involved in its phenomenal doing. The scientist ob¬ 
serves the manifestations of electricity and thus knows 
electricity in a manner; yet he is even now bent on 
the study of what really is electricity. Thus with the 
Infinite Reality: we know some of its activities, but of 
its inner nature we are ignorant. And ever shall re¬ 
main in ignorance. This unknowability of Reality’s 
activities in Pure Being is due to the fact that we can 
only know substance through its action upon our know- 


16 


Creative Personality 


ing selves. The process of knowing is a return action 
of the self to some other action, either of the self or 
of the Not-Self. The return action, or the'reaction, 
signifies that the self gives meaning to the action by 
which reaction is induced. This action upon us is 
indispensable to the knowing reaction. If an exist¬ 
ence— whether of matter, force or thought — does 
not act upon us in some way, thus causing the mental 
reaction of knowing (perceiving, apprehending, com¬ 
prehending or intensively understanding), it is evident 
that we can never know it at all. If we in any way 
know an activity of an existence, we know by so much 
just that much about the existence itself. If we know, 
apprehend, understand all the activities of an existence 
which are capable of exciting our mental reaction of 
knowing, we by so much know all about it — all that 
we have any power to know. This knowledge, how¬ 
ever, sets our limit. We can not know more than all 
the activities which an existence is capable of bringing 
to bear upon us. We can not further understand or 
even apprehend the ground, source or cause of these 
activities upon us, because we can only know through 
activities inducing our knowing — and all such have 
by the supposition been exhausted. In other words, 
the “ thing in itself,” and so, the activities that consti¬ 
tute that “ thing,” is necessarily unknowable, except 
that we are driven to affirm that the activities inducing 
our knowing demand an actor for their manifestation; 
we gather what the existence does phenomenally, and 
thus know all about the actor as an acting something, 
the latter remaining unknown because it has exhausted 


A Study in Reality 


17 


its activities upon us and so our power to know it. 
Pure Being, therefore, forever hides or recedes from 
our mental vision. 

We recall our definition of knowing as “ giving 
meaning to an object of thought.” Knowing an ac¬ 
tivity of Pure Being upon us consists in giving some 
meaning to that activity — relating it to the balance 
of our mental life. When we know all such activities, 
we have related the ideas raised by them, severally and 
altogether, to one another and to the contents of our 
mental experience. Our knowing here is meanings 
given to the activities. One thing remains, however, 
that appears in the process, even though we are un¬ 
aware, even though we deny — to-wit: there has been 
action upon us, and we must give meaning to that action 
as well as meaning to the activities themselves. We 
must properly place in our thought the fact of this 
action. Such placing does not occur until we affirm 
an actor; that affirmation is one meaning of the action 
upon us. The meanings of the activities are various — 
as the case may be; the meaning of the action, or of 
the activities as a total fact, is always and inevitably 
one —-No action without an actor. We never imagine 
the contrary until we fall into some passion of psycho¬ 
logical dogmatism and declare, perhaps, that the activi¬ 
ties as a “ bunch ” or “ system ” constitute the actor. 
Whether or no a system can support itself will come 
before us a little later in this chapter. 

These considerations bring us to the question: Is 
this Pure Being, for the reason that we can not directly 
know it, a mere abstraction, an idle quest for thought ? 


18 


Creative Personality 


Second Consideration. 

The answer to the above question seems evident. 
The idea of a Fundamental Reality supporting the phe¬ 
nomena of the Universe is an absolute necessity of 
good thinking. It is not affirmed that we need an 
Universal Matter, or an Universal Life as Ground and 
Source of the Universe in which we live. It is con¬ 
cluded from the laws of mind that good thinking de¬ 
mands as such Ground and Source — That Which is 
Infinite, Eternal, Indivisible, which is always through¬ 
out the same and identical with itself, which contains 
within itself the Sole Reason for its own existence. 

Our thought may not always demand that the Being- 
Activities of Fundamental Reality shall be taken into 
definite consideration by us in all our thought in physi¬ 
cal science. In physical science only the phenomena 
of Reality need be discussed or thought about. This 
indifference of physical science to the essence of Real¬ 
ity springs from the fact that the province of physical 
science does not include the essence of things, but 
covers phenomena and their relations alone. The 
knowledge of physical science, however, can not ex¬ 
haust the Universe. Philosophy is as important to the 
human mind as is science in its physical fields. The 
systematized knowledge of facts, principles and laws, 
which is science in its broadest sense, includes both 
the phenomena of matter and the phenomena of that 
which transcends matter. However extensive the 
field and knowledge of physical science may be, there 
are other fields of investigation and other knowledges 


A Study in Reality 


19 


with which physical science, as such, can not deal, for 
the reason, in part, that the human mind furnishes the 
fundamental facts, principles and laws which physical 
science assumes, and must assume, at the outset of its 
work, and which it employs all through that work, 
but which it does not investigate or demonstrate, since 
this is not the work it has in hand at all. When 
science investigates the latter work, it ceases to be 
physical and becomes metaphysical and functions as, 
say, Psychology. When it seeks to cover the principles 
of Reality underlying, so to speak, the physical Uni¬ 
verse, it becomes Philosophy. 

Over against material phenomena stands the human 
intellect in person. The human mind deals not alone 
with the subject of the physical scientist, it deals with 
the entire mentality employed by the scientist. The 
human self in mental action holds tenaciously, because 
it must do so or lose its integrity, to certain ineradicable, 
and never in the least degree negligible, fundamental 
principles which thought is compelled to use, whatever 
the desire or the goal of the thinker. These great 
principles are practically known to us all because not 
a day passes during which some of them are not em¬ 
ployed by every man and woman in the world. One 
of these principles is this—simple, obvious, incon¬ 
trovertible: Every activity proceeds from an actor. 
It is the great law of Cause and Effect — Causality. 
However speciously we may juggle with this law, 
affirming that cause and effect merely represent se¬ 
quence, or that an effect is only the cause in a new 
form, it still remains a law of thought because mere 


20 


Creative Personality 


sequence is the matter always to be explained, because 
sequence does nothing but involve a doing behind it, 
because the effect is called effect for the reason that it 
always lacks the true element of cause. A cause in 
this chain of sequence can only bring about the effect 
by acting forth into a something not itself; otherwise 
it remains an inert and idle notion, not a real fact. 
We give meaning to the words “ cause ” and “ effect,” 
not by relating them merely as sequence, as antecedent 
and consequent, but by placing the antecedent as active 
power making the consequent inevitable/ 

Third Consideration. 

Perfectly true as the statement is^that every activity 
necessitates an actor, it is exactly at this point that our 
discussion must draw finer and tighter lines of thought. 
The axiom referred to seems wholly obvious, and any 
prolonged treatment of it seems altogether needless. 
There are those, nevertheless, who aver that we need 
no “ thing in itself,” Fundamental Reality, Pure Being, 
in our effort to know and understand the Universe in 
which we live. Just as, it is said, in Psychology the 
thinker requires to know merely a “ plurality of psy¬ 
chical experiences,” so, it is insisted that in our study 
of worlds we rest content with phenomena or activi¬ 
ties that mean phenomena to us, and ignore the Ground 
and Source of such activities as mere useless abstrac¬ 
tion. To this curious notion our good thinking now 
invites careful attention. 

Every physical science thus far built up incessantly 


A Study in Reality 


21 


contradicts the proposition that the Reality behind or 
in phenomena is merely fictional. Science refers light, 
electricity, magnetism and certain “ rays ” emitted by 
radium to an universal ether, and speaks of “ stresses ” 
therein and seeks to explain the same — searches for 
the causes. No one supposes that the ether can put 
itself into strain. So, also, we have reference to that 
which exerts force, since initiation of itself is foreign 
to the idea of force. Science never looks for energy 
in a void, but endeavors to run it down to its last hiding 
place. Science disputes whether or no a vital entity 
exists, but asserts surely that life appears in the action 
of chemical elements, and now struggles to make out 
“ the very thing in itself ” which a chemical element 
represents. The question, What is matter ? is an effort 
to get at the Reality which manifests matter. Always 
in science any movement raises assumption of a mover, 
and any activity the conclusion that here is a something 
thus revealing initiating power. No one believes that 
the phenomena of the Universe are based on a Noth¬ 
ing. The Universe can not inhere in pure Nonentity. 
If there is an Universe, it expresses the ways of being 
and doing of some sort of adequate Actuality. 

And it is incompetent to affirm that we call for this 
Actuality merely because we want a fictional stopping- 
place — a ground of pure mental convenience. The 
reverse is true: our mental convenience springs from 
the fact that we must make our language fit the facts 
that appeal to us. We do not invent the idea of cause 
and effect; the idea is forced upon us by the action of 
an Universe compelling thought. 


22 


Creative Personality 


Fourth Consideration. 

Since phenomena represent activities, and since every 
activity means an actor, no system of activities can be 
self-explanatory. The activities behind what we call 
phenomena are never the same as the activities by 
which we apprehend the phenomena. Light, for ex¬ 
ample is physically speaking a complex ray in the uni¬ 
versal ether; the light that the self apprehends in mind 
is a pure activity of intelligence. Thus the objective 
facts become known by us as phenomena. The phe¬ 
nomena are supported by external physical activities. 
The psychical activities give meaning to the physical — 
and the phenomena are such meanings. We can not 
suppose that we give meanings to nonentities. The 
physical activities actually occur. There are those who 
contend that the psychical activities constitute the 
knowing self and that the physical activities constitute 
the Universe. The self and the Universe are simply 
systems of activities; nothing else exists for knowledge. 
Is knowing just a “ contact ” of activities among them¬ 
selves ? 

This question will seem to the ordinary mind alto¬ 
gether unnecessary. How can we conceive of an 
action without an actor? How can an activity or a 
system of activities originate itself? Nevertheless, 
there are writers who seemingly deny this fundamental 
law, that an action can only be gotten into being by an 
actor, and apparently declare that a system of activities 
needs no other actor than itself. The notion is a pure 


A Study in Reality 23 

fiction of mental confusion. The confusion appears 
in the following. 

“ We shall, therefore (says one writer) stop at 
what we know.” And he proceeds to refuse to stop 
at what we know. “ The soul is a plurality of psy¬ 
chical experiences comprehended into the unity of con¬ 
sciousness in a manner not further known. We know 
nothing whatever of a substance outside of, behind or 
under the ideas and feelings.” 

An experience is constituted by mental activities. 
“ A plurality of psychic experiences ” is a plurality of 
mental activities. That is, a number of activities is a 
number of activities. To “ comprehend ” a “ plu¬ 
rality into a unity ” is, not merely to think of the proc¬ 
ess, but to accomplish the comprehending act. The 
nature of the activities may constitute the unity — in 
the observer’s thought, but this is not the only compre¬ 
hending that goes on. It is the comprehending unity 
that requires explanation, not merely a description. A 
“ plurality of psychic experiences” is comprehended 
into a unity by reason of their characteristics, as we 
observe them, and, in addition to that fact, by some 
factor which determines those characteristics. A sys¬ 
tem of activities is a group of activities acting as a 
whole, having a function (or goal or work), or a 
group of functions as the explanation of its existence. 
No system of activities except an infinite one can cause 
itself as a system, since every single activity in the 
system must be produced by an actor other than the 
system, and what is true of the individuals in the group 


24 


Creative Personality 


is true of the whole taken as a unit. No system less 
than infinite can be the initiator of any of its own 
members. To affirm the contrary is to affirm that a 
cause can cause itself. The product of a cause is an 
effect, and cause and effect may not legitimately be 
confused. A cause is involved in its effect, just as an 
effect expresses its cause, but never are cause and effect 
the same or capable of being identified. The language 
indicates the fact that thought can not employ either 
word for one and the same thing. Cause, considered 
as cause, is cause only, and effect, when truly itself, is 
effect alone. While the effects involved in a system 
are products of a cause or of causes, they are not, and 
never can be, effects caused by the system as a whole. 
We are here speaking of systems and causes less than 
infinite — of which more will appear later in this dis¬ 
cussion. There is no mysterious power in a system of 
activities, of any nature less than infinite, to support 
itself or any of its constituent elements. When 
writers speak of a system of things or forces as being 
solely constituted by the activities that make the things 
or are the forces (even exhaustively considered), with 
no underlying or manifesting reality supporting or 
causing the activities which are the system, they merely 
juggle with words and their own mental powers. 

These facts impose upon thinkers and writers the 
obligation, when they speak of any acting object, to 
definitely state that, if they are dealing only with the 
activities, the latter solely constitute the matter in hand, 
and that the reality of the acting somewhat is not 
before them. 


A Study in Reality 


25 


These facts impose upon us the obligation, when 
speaking of metaphysical or psychological matters, to 
state definitely that, although the nature or essence of 
an actor may be unknowable and while the activities 
alone constitute our subject, the acting somewhat is 
set aside as not under discussion, but is frankly ad¬ 
mitted as an existence and as a necessary supposition 
of good thinking. Otherwise confusion must obtain 
and the contradiction must appear to be our conclusion 
that a cause and an effect, an actor and its activities, 
can be identified. 

If we suppose a system of activities to be called 
A-B-C-D-E-F-G, the system is composed of activities 
A and B and C and D and E and F and G. Can the 
system cause any of the activities contained within it? 
Can itself cause all the activities? If it can do the 
latter, it can exist before it becomes a system. If it 
can do the former, it can exist before that particular 
activity comes into being; that is to say, a total cause- 
system can precede some of the elements that make it a 
whole. If such a system can cause itself it can sup¬ 
port itself, for any cause, taken solely as cause, stands 
on its own feet; otherwise it is in part an effect. The 
only support of a cause is its own nature. If a cause 
less than infinite can not cause itself it can not main¬ 
tain itself as cause, but immediately becomes something 
else. And if a cause can not cause or support itself, 
it can not cause or support any one of its elements. A 
system of activities, therefore, can not legitimately be 
regarded as the cause or support of itself or any of 
the activities included. 


26 


Creative Personality 


We will assume that the system A-B-C-D-E-F-G can 
cause, and so, support itself. It needs no other ground 
or support than itself. The supposition here is a sys¬ 
tem less than infinite. The system, as such, causes 
itself and hence its constituent elements, the activities. 
It is obvious that in this case each of the activities has 
a share in causing every other associated activity, be¬ 
cause each is a part of the system as cause and also 
an integral element in the cause of all the others. 
Each activity in part causes itself as well. The activity 
G, then, shares in causing A and B and C and D and E 
and F. Then the activity G in part causes itself and 
in part causes the remaining activities. So, an activity 
can at one and the same time serve as cause and effect 

— in the one identical process. The conclusion, stated, 
is as follows — as applied to system A-B-C-D-E-F-G: 

Activity G in part causes and supports itself plus x 

— the x being its share in the existence of A and B and 
C and D and E and F. Activity F holds the same 
function. E shares also this curious power. D also 
comes in for double power. Each of the activities 
C and B and A causes in part itself as a member of 
the system and the other activities as members. The 
system thus causes itself plus 7x. The work of the 
system is greater than the system. The system has 
more power than the sum of the powers of its elements. 
We are juggling with words and thought when we say 
that we need no other reality as explanation of a system 
of activities than the system itself. 

The truth, of course, is thus: Every person less 
than infinite is incompetent to support itself, since no 


27 


A Study in Reality 

cause less than infinite is competent to produce itself. 
Therefore, any reality less than infinite in its nature is 
incapable of supporting itself, and can exhibit no reason 
for its existence throughout its constitution. 

We conclude that such a system as the Universe can 
not be disposed of for thought by simply taking it as 
a system of activities. If the laws of mind are true 
and truly regulative of our investigation of the activi¬ 
ties constituting the Universe, they must represent 
truly the constitution of that Universe. We may err 
in our conclusions about the facts of the Universe, 
but we must assume that the laws of mind and the 
laws of the Universe are in no sense contradictory. 

Fifth Consideration. 

No mere plurality of activities can explain a true 
system. Both for our thought and for the fact, a 
plurality of activities becomes a system only when the 
existence of some unifying reality makes it a system. 
This unifying somewhat may be the character or nature 
of the activities, the principle that determines that 
nature, and the end or object for which they are 
adapted. If we have, for example, a hub, some spokes, 
the parts of the felloe and the tire, the unifying things 
here are — material of the objects, form when put to¬ 
gether, and the wheel-principle. Representing these 
objects as abstract activities, we see that the latter are 
no system until they have an actor, a determining prin¬ 
ciple and a fitting end or goal or work. So, we say 
that the Universe is not a mere heterogeneous jumble 
of activities; it is more than a plurality; it is a true 


28 


Creative Personality 


system. But its system-character springs from the 
fact that it is based in Reality which manifests in its 
activities, that the activities are evidently determined 
by some definite principle, and that the on-going out¬ 
come stands for work or ends made possible by and 
limited to that principle. Of course it is the Reality 
which contains the principle and acts for the ends in 
evidence. In other words, the Universe, as a mere 
plurality, contains within itself no reason for the exist¬ 
ence either of the plurality or for the system as such. 
And the ends of which it is capable do not represent 
such reason, because they require a reason. Only the 
Fundamental Reality contains within itself the reason 
for the existence of the Universe, because the principle 
which determines the Universe to be an Universe can 
be found nowhere else. That we need look no further 
for unifying ground of the Universe than to Infinite 
Reality will appear in our discussion on a later page. 

Sixth Consideration. 

The Universe demands a background (for thought) 
in Infinite Reality which is always throughout the same 
and identical with itself and which contains within 
itself the sole reason for itself. This proposition 
may first be worked out in a very concise and funda¬ 
mental way. The great existences of the Universe 
appear to be Matter and Person. We have said that 
there is no Universal Matter adequate as cause and sup¬ 
port of objects. The matter that constitutes objects 
is compounded of chemical elements. The chemical 
elements, as such, differ from one another in various 


A Study in Reality 


29 


degrees, and so do the chemical compounds. The ele¬ 
ments can combine only in certain limited ways, and 
no element which enters into any compound can at the 
same time enter into any other compound. So, also, 
no compound which enters into any material object 
can at the same time enter into any other object. 
There are about eighty kinds of elements and, it may 
be, several hundred thousand kinds of compounds. 
The total quantity of elements no one knows, just as 
the total number of compounds and material objects 
no one can determine. Yet the quantity of elemental 
and compounded matter is a total of some size, what¬ 
ever that may be. Matter so far as reason can go is 
limited. There is nothing in the nature of matter to 
indicate that it is infinite in the true sense of the word. 
We can always conceive of more matter, but we can 
also always conceive of some limit to matter. This 
means that because we can conceive of more matter, 
there is always the possibility of more and more and 
more — which gives matter a finite existence in our 
thought. But the Fundamental Reality, which evi¬ 
dently expresses in the Universe, can not have the 
quality of limitability, but must pervade all things, act 
as cause and support of all things, and at once consti¬ 
tute any object and every other object. If it manifests 
itself in an atom or an ion of the ether, or the Universe, 
or countless Universes, it just as truly and simultane¬ 
ously manifests in every conceivable existence of every 
conceivable kind. If every activity requires an actor, 
and if no system of activities can cause or support 
itself, but demands some unifying Ground and Source 


30 


Creative Personality 


other than itself, it seems infallibly correct to affirm 
that the vast diversity of our Universe must be based 
by our thought in the perfect unity of that Infinite 
Reality which the definition of these pages has sought 
to enforce. 

The proposition suggested at the head of the present 
consideration may now be worked out in a somewhat 
different manner. The Universe in which we live ap¬ 
pears to be a vast, yet limited, system of activities, 
which exhibit phenomenally as, in part material, in 
part non-material. We may grant that some of the 
activities involved in the existence of an Universe may 
be non-material, yet not personal; we simply do not 
know. But it appears to be the fact that all the activi¬ 
ties that we do recognize except, perhaps, of the Uni¬ 
versal ether and of force, are of a nature which we call 
personal. The Universe, then, so far as concerns its 
known qualities, consists of matter, force, and person. 
Always, then, we have to deal with actions of things 
and actions of persons. Now, we never, in common 
speech, think of the actions as either the things or the 
persons. We refer actions by objects to the objects 
themselves, and action of or within things to the mat¬ 
ter which takes the form of things. In a similar man¬ 
ner we speak of activities by persons, referring the 
former to the latter, and of activities within person, 
referring the activities to a self which manifests as 
person. Nobody supposes that activities by objects or 
persons constitute the objects and persons. No one, 
then, should suppose that the activities taking place 
within objects or persons cause the objects and the 


A Study in Reality 


31 


selves. Objects and persons are indeed constituted by 
activities of various sorts, so far as mere observation 
goes, because critical thought alone is adequate to dis¬ 
cover that the activities constituting objects and per¬ 
sons can not cause and support themselves, and demand 
an actor revealing in such activities. Common speech 
refers activities within objects, and constituting them, 
to matter, but, since matter is itself activities requiring 
an actor for explanation in our clearer thought, we are 
compelled to refer these activities to some existence 
that is in itself perfectly adequate to constitute the 
ground and source of all objects, whether material or 
non-material. The reference of common speech indi¬ 
cates the logical necessity which the better critical 
thought carries out, and the outcome is the reference 
suggested. In the Infinite and Eternal Reality already 
defined, this necessity is fulfilled. Similarly with ac¬ 
tivities constituting the self revealing in activities con¬ 
stituting the person. The person is a system of activi¬ 
ties given definite “shape” by the activities of the 
self,— for the person-system can not cause and sup¬ 
port itself, and as this is equally true of the self-system, 
— the activities constituting the self,— the logical de¬ 
mand appears here also, and it is satisfied by reference 
to the Fundamental Reality that grounds and supports 
every other existence. Similarly with the Universal 
ether. This is an hypothetical existence demanded by 
critical scientific thought, which investigation appears 
to be demonstrating as an actual existence. The ether 
is anything other than an inert something; it is itself 
evidently a vast system of activities,— a double system, 


32 


Creative Personality 


— since we have those activities which it manifests, 
and we conclude that it is constituted by activities that 
determine it to be what it is. Outside the field of 
science no one supposes that the ether is merely the 
activities that are manifest to us. Electricity is one 
such activity, but it can not be claimed that electricity 
is the ether itself; it is said to be a “ movement ” or 
a condition of the ether. (In the same manner, mag¬ 
netism, light, some forms of radio-action are explained 
as “ stresses ” or “ strains ” or conditions of the ether.) 
All such conditions are really activities of ether within 
itself. These kinds of activity do not explain the 
medium in which they occur. Our effort to get at the 
nature of the ether is actually an effort to know its 
constitutive activities. That is to say, the effort is an 
admission that the ether can not cause and support 
itself. We are coming to think that matter is an es¬ 
tablished system of activities of the ether within itself; 
some assert that matter is electricity and nothing but 
electricity. Even if so, electricity can not cause and 
support itself. Our effort to find out what electricity 
is, as well as our effort to know the nature of the ether 
which manifests as electricity and then in matter, drives 
us further back to the old axiom: Every activity de¬ 
mands an actor. Some of the etheric activities ex¬ 
hibited in electricity, magnetism, light, matter, we know 
in part, but the activities that make the ether what it 
is must be referred in good thinking to some actuality 
which is adequate to manifest in this universal medium. 

No juggling with words about activities can obviate 


A Study in Reality 


33 


the conviction that activities and actor may never be 
identified, that no system of activities can cause and 
support itself, even though a system may have more 
power as a system than the sum-total powers of its 
members, since our axiom demands that the individual 
activities must have some support other than the sys¬ 
tem, exactly as this must have some support other 
than itself, that the Universe obeys this general law of 
mentality, and that our thought finds an end in some 
Infinite and Eternal Reality which is adequate as 
cause and support of all things. 

The ether appears to be universal in the sense that 
it is coincident with the material universe so far as we 
know. This fact, however, does not make it infinite 
or eternal. Possibly it is an effect or a system of 
effects of a cause or a system of causes evolving toward 
matter and material forces. Conceivably, the ether 
may be infinite in a quantitative sense and eternal in 
the sense of duration. We can conceive of its exist¬ 
ence in this way, regarding it as a medium and its 
activities as a method of evolution in fundamental 
aspects — that is, aspects just preceding or underlying 
what we call matter and force. It may be that always 
matter and force have been becoming, disintegrating, 
becoming again, and it may also be that the ether,— 
and its activities,— the medium and method,— have al¬ 
ways been becoming. Nevertheless, the becoming here 
must mean that forever the ether as medium and 
method have been the effects of a Something forever 
acting as Infinite and Eternal Cause and support 


34 


Creative Personality 


thereof. Even granting these suppositions, our 
thought finds no resting place save in the Fundamental 
Reality here suggested. 

Seventh Consideration. 

Our conclusion (that every action demands an 
actor) does not, now, apply to a system of activities 
which is infinite and eternal in itself. On the contrary, 
the conclusion demands precisely such a system as 
cause and support for every other system, on the 
ground that the latter is less than infinite and the 
former is infinite in all legitimate senses. No system 
less than infinite gives the mind the> necessary reason 
for the existence of such system. A system that is in 
itself infinite and eternal must be its own cause, must 
support itself, must contain within itself the sole rea¬ 
son of and for its existence. 

It may be hastily concluded that we stop in some 
Infinite because the mind can not entertain the idea 
of an endless chain of causes and effects, and assumes 
a First Cause for that reason. We do not arrive at our 
conclusion arbitrarily,— and in order to get rid of the 
infinite regress,— as some thinkers express themselves 
in the matter, that is, by arbitrarily ending the quest 
somewhere, What causes the cause of the cause? To 
do this is to do as some scientists who affirm that it 
is enough to investigate phenomena and stop at that 
point. The meaning of this is to cease thinking when 
we arrive at questions requiring the whole mind rather 
than a part only. If science in its physical sense must 
pause with physics, the whole mind of the scientist 


A Study in Reality 


35 


craves — unless it has in part atrophied — the meta¬ 
physics which alone gives science its basis and its in¬ 
struments of work. As a matter of fact there is no 
particular reason, after all, why in the regress, we can 
hope to get rid of the regress by pausing anywhere 
until we reach Pure Cause. If we go on forever 
thinking of cause of cause, we are always assured of 
a plenty of receding causes with which to satisfy the 
law that every effect must have a cause, since there is 
forever one cause more. This position is entirely as 
legitimate as that which supinely settles down in mat¬ 
ter or force as sufficient support for the phenomena of 
the Universe. 

Nevertheless, the position is contemptible, for the 
reason that it deliberately puts the mind to sleep and 
refuses to think the matter out to an adequate finish. 
There remains a more excellent way. 

We arrive at the conclusion that an Infinite System 
of Reality causes and supports the Universe, and only 
such can achieve the task, because the nature of Infinite 
and Eternal Reality compels mental rest. This means 
that such Fundamental Reality is the only Pure Cause 
that we can conceive. When we speak of a cause of 
a cause, however long we continue to say the words, 
we do not once speak of a real actor in any final or 
perfect sense of the phrase. We merely put into any 
cause in the chain the idea of cause which we feel 
is needed, but which at no time is really there. Even 
were any cause in the chain a real cause in part, it is 
so in part only, since, just because it is a member of a 
chain, it is also an effect. Secondary causes are merely 


36 


Creative Personality 


mental conveniences by which we locate any member 
of a series. A real cause can not be an effect. As 
every cause in the chain is really an effect, it is evident 
that the real cause never appears in a sequence — 
except the first cause. First or Pure Cause alone re¬ 
veals the actor. The endless regress fails to intro¬ 
duce the required actor. Any activity that may serve 
as a cause, yet also demands an actor to get itself into 
existence, is no true cause. This getting into existence 
of an activity is an effect, however much we may de¬ 
ceive ourselves with the notion that it is a cause. 
No so-called cause in an endless chain can satisfy the 
rational mind, because no such cause can be wholly a 
true cause and nothing other than a cause. Only Fun¬ 
damental Reality can define Cause in its absolute sense. 
Here alone is our mental diamond, “ of purest ray 
serene,’’ shaping every other existence, itself shaped 
by none, and shining forever in the depths of honest 
critical thought — an eternal guiding star for human 
reason. 

We conclude that Infinite and Eternal Reality does 
not demand cause and support, but is self-causing and 
self-supporting, because the words Infinite and Eternal 
Reality preclude any additional or underlying cause and 
support. This is no assumption out of hand. It is an 
absolutely necessary conclusion. Our Reality is by 
nature infinite and eternal, and thus embraces all ex¬ 
istences and exhausts both our mental resources and 
the whole matter under discussion. There can be 
only one Infinite Reality. In that thought, whenever 
we seek for a further cause or a further support, we 


A Study in Reality 37, 

seek what we already have. The conception carries the 
things sought. The Reality carries in its nature—in 
our very idea of its nature — its own cause and its 
own support. If, coming to the Fundamental Reality, 
we ask: What causes or maintains this? we are in 
effect, by the question, denying that it is Infinite and 
Eternal. We thus ask for the infinite and eternal 
cause of the infinite and eternal effect. The request is 
contradictory of one or the other member of the ques¬ 
tion. By its infinity, the cause can be no effect. An 
infinite effect denies itself, since a cause is greater than 
an effect, and nothing can be greater than the infinite. 
Moreover, we are now juggling with two infinites, 
which is a contradiction of terms. Fundamental Real¬ 
ity must stand alone. 

Eighth Consideration. 

The Fundamental Reality manifests in every ma¬ 
terial object and in the self of every human person. 
This means that the Reality constitutes the object and 
the self. Our analysis would seem to separate the 
Reality from existence, but such separation is merely 
due to the fact that we distinguish object and Reality 
for convenience of thought. In true actuality the 
object and the self could no more exist apart from 
the Reality than a tree could exist apart from matter. 
This necessity of thought, that we separate for thought 
what we know to be inseparable in fact should be held 
in mind as a safeguard against that confusion which 
we have been trying to avoid, to-wit: that an activity 
and an actor may coexist in actual conditions and 


38 


Creative Personality 


therefore may be logically identified. Objects are con¬ 
stituted by the Fundamental Reality, but the fact of 
the constituting assumes that the Reality acts as cause 
to manifest itself in the objects. The universal ether 
would not exist were Reality not to constitute it; 
always, therefore, the Reality appears in the ether. 
There is no ether where the Reality does not act as 
ether. Nevertheless, we may not say that there is no 
Reality where the ether does not exist. There is no 
matter apart from the ether, although we may not say 
that there is no Reality where the ether is non-existent. 
The ether is universal so far as we know, but we have 
no reason for assuming that it is infinite. No chemical 
elements exist that are not matter and probably ether, 
and so, that are not exhibits of Reality, but to affirm 
that Reality can have no being apart from the elements 
is to contradict the law that every system of activities 
must have cause and support for thought in some kind 
of being, logically distinguishable therefrom. Our 
analysis, however, must not separate the Fundamental 
Reality from the Universe so far as to lose the Reality 
out of the Universe. We do not identify our thoughts 
with ourselves — say that our thoughts are our selves; 
the selves have or think the thoughts. There are no 
thoughts apart from a self, although we may not sup¬ 
pose the self non-existent simply because not active in 
thought. The self constitutes the thoughts, and is in 
them as their cause and support. The activities called 
thoughts demand an active self to make them possible. 
Thus with all objects and all human selves: the Reality 
is distinguishable from them as cause and support, but 


A Study in Reality 


39 


inseparable from them in the sense that they only exist 
as the Reality is in and manifests itself through them. 
In actuality, every material object, every physical force, 
and every human self might affirm truly: “I am of 
the essence or nature of the Infinite RealityThere is 
indicated in such a possible claim identity of nature 
which is not to be confused with identity of totality. 
No individual object of existence is the whole of exist¬ 
ence, since individuality and not universality is the fact. 
The Infinite Reality has a wholeness, even if infinite: 
the wholeness is infinite. The wholeness of any indi¬ 
vidual object is finite. No object, then, is the whole 
Reality. Material objects are altogether matter, but 
none is the whole of matter. The nature of Reality 
appears in every form of matter and human self, but 
the latter do not exhaust the former. In actuality, the 
Reality and its manifestations are identical; for thought 
they are separable as cause and effect. 

Ninth Consideration. 

All manifestations of the Fundamental Reality are 
independent separate existences so far as concerns their 
relation to that Reality. Material objects and human 
selves sustain mutual relations of greater or less de¬ 
pendence upon one another in maintaining their exist¬ 
ence, because that is one of the complex ways Reality 
has of being and doing. Chemical elements combine 
into compounds, and compounds cooperate together in 
living and other forms of matter, and vegetables and 
animals utilize the products of living matter; yet Real¬ 
ity gives to every existence its individuality, which is 


40 


Creative Personality 


absolutely independent of the actuality of every other 
existence. As our thoughts sustain mutual relations, 
one suggesting another and combining with others, yet 
become solely through the action of the self, so material 
objects and human selves, however dependent upon one 
another, are constituted alone by the Fundamental 
Reality, and made individual and non-identical. The 
Reality manifests itself in innumerable forms, each of 
which, in relation to the Cause and Support, is itself 
only and none other. 

The apparent commonplaceness of this proposition 
disappears when we work out some of its implications. 
Every individual object of existence has now absolute 
standing, apart from all the interdependence and “ obli¬ 
gation ” of mutuality. The right of each to unfold 
Reality to the limit now becomes unimpeachable. Evi¬ 
dently this right is an “ obligation.” At least, this be¬ 
comes the sole end of any existence. The real nature 
of each existence, then, is to attract to itself whatever 
is favorable to the goal suggested, and to repel what¬ 
ever is unfavorable. Each individual object and 
human self is now driven to maintain and develop its 
individuality,— to work out Fundamental Reality,— 
whatever the cost to any other object, because only so 
can Reality come to full expression of itself, or to 
“best estate,” and because the Infinite Reality, in 
coming to full expression of itself, will assuredly, if 
perfectly free (as it is in the material world) bring all 
individual objects to “ best estate ” as it will bring one. 
It is as if Infinite Reality were constantly saying to all 
things: “Come to your ‘best estate v by fully insist- 


41 


A Study in Reality 

ing that I, as expressed in you, shall have absolute 
right of way to perfectly individualize you, whatever 
the apparent consequences to others, because I will 
and am able to take due care of such consequences and 
to individualize every other existence.” The standing 
of each individual object and self in the Fundamental 
Reality puts the whole of the latter’s freedom into each 
object and self. Each may now freely exhibit or 
evolve all that is possible to it as an individual ex¬ 
pression of free Reality. And this freedom originates 
the highest tendency of things and the highest duty of 
the human self. In the vast drama of the Universe 
all “ stains ” and “ flaws ” become now relative, and 
not absolute, and so remediable and eliminative as the 
wonderful Play shall go on. 

Tenth Consideration. 

If the individual object, human or otherwise, is 
obliged as well as privileged to insist upon fullest ex¬ 
pression of itself regardless of consequences because 
the Infinite Reality will take care of the consequences 
in its own unfoldment through individuals, it is evi¬ 
dent that “ stains ” and “ flaws ” are temporary only 
and will, all disappear in the final outcome. Some ap¬ 
parently imperfect objects may cease to be, but the Uni¬ 
verse will at last realize the absolute perfection of the 
Fundamental Reality thus evolving itself. 

Eleventh Consideration. 

The expression of the Fundamental Reality in ma¬ 
terial objects and forces and the human selves is con- 


42 


Creative Personality 


tinuous, and not an event once for all. All things are 
forever in the act of becoming. This is true because 
the Reality is the Ground and Source of existence, and 
therefore its perennial support. Were the support or 
the cause of existence to cease for an instant, the exist¬ 
ence would necessarily fail. Both the animal and the 
plant are ever in the process of becoming what they 
are. Matter, also, has no power to maintain itself, but 
gets its being through action, going on without cessa¬ 
tion, of its Fundamental Cause. Thus as well with the 
ether: this is not an existence brought into being at 
“ the beginning/’ but becomes incessantly by the same 
action. There can be no true evolution otherwise. 
Objects have no power to evolve themselves; if they 
had such power, the question must be answerfed: 
Evolution of what? If this evolution is merely of mat¬ 
ter, the same question occurs in regard to matter. 
Were we to assume that the evolution is simply of the 
ether, we have exactly the same problem. Evolution 
means the unfolding expression in varying forms of an 
Infinite and Eternal Reality, the nature of which is to 
do precisely this. All things therefore are in a state 
of unceasing becoming. 

Twelfth Consideration. 

The Fundamental Reality can unfold nothing foreign 
to its nature. It may express itself in infinitely vary¬ 
ing forms, but these forms are all of itself, pertaining 
to its own nature. In other words, not even Infinite 
and Eternal Reality can transcend itself. Nothing 
exists “outside” the Reality. Nothing exists which 


A Study in Reality 


43 


does not express the Reality. Nothing is of a nature 
essentially different from the Reality. Every exist¬ 
ence, and all states and activities of existence, express 
the Reality. No object and no person can act “ out¬ 
side ” that which forever gives it being. The “ stains ” 
and “ flaws ” of the Universe — as so-called " evil ” 
may be described — are within the Infinite Reality and 
have possibility only through its expression. We deem 
these activities or states “ evil ” because we are unable 
to measure or perceive the final outcome of the uni¬ 
versal process, but once we see that the Fundamental 
Reality is eternally engaged in unfolding itself through 
objects and human selves, we discover that these 
“ evil ” states are our imperfect interpretations of some 
of the details of evolution. They are relatively “ evil ” 
because free intelligence in human beings gets into 
relations with objects and forces and other human 
beings that bring consequences which we do not ad¬ 
mire, but which consequences are as truly an expres¬ 
sion of the Reality as any so-called admirable existence, 
since in them the Reality is going on to its own perfect 
unfoldment in existence. 

Thirteenth Consideration. 

Freedom is of the essence of the Fundamental Real¬ 
ity. The Infinite can not be other than free. Since 
our Reality is infinite in nature, and is the Ground and 
Source of all existence, there can be no other existence 
infinite in nature, and hence no power adequate to 
coerce its activities. Its activities can not be self- 
coerced, since a self-coerced infinite is a contradiction 


44 


Creative Personality 


of terms and thought. The possibilities of a true 
Infinite are also infinite. The unfoldment of such pos¬ 
sibilities is either selective or mechanical, we may say. 
But the idea of the mechanical does not imply accident 
and does not imply coercion. An infinity of reaction 
set against an infinity of reaction constitutes an infinite 
balk or estoppel. An infinity of accident can only 
signify a quantitative infinite, which is not exhaustive 
of a true Infinite, as this is qualitative no less than 
quantitative — a Reality which is Infinite in its Nature. 
The meaning of “ mechanical ” is cooperation of 
“ means ” to an “ end.” Mechanism is a realization in 
instrumentation for work. Every human machine ex¬ 
presses an unvarying tendency which we call adapta¬ 
tion, and the adaptation is the principle of mechanism. 
Such principle determines the machine and its working. 
The machine is free to act within the limits of its con¬ 
struction, and an Infinite Reality derives freedom from 
its own nature to act within itself with infinite free 
self-cooperation. And this means infinite cooperative 
power. This further appears in our discussion imme¬ 
diately to follow the present consideration. 

The Freedom of Fundamental Reality manifests in 
its expressions according to their form and sphere. 
We may say that the ether is free to act in “ stresses ” 
and “ strains ” and undulations, vibrations, waves, etc., 
because this is the nature of the Reality in such ex¬ 
pression as the ether. We may say that matter is free 
to act in chemical constitutions and reactions, in various 
compounds and in purely vegetable and animal forms, 
because also here we have the nature of Reality thus 


A Study in Reality 45 

expressing. We may say that both the evolution and 
the disintegration of chemical elements are expressions 
of free Reality to act in the ways indicated. We may 
say that each individual plant and animal has the free¬ 
dom of its own nature, that is, the nature of the Ground 
and Source and Cause of each object. And we may 
say that each individual human self is free within the 
sphere of its own nature to be a human and to act with 
all the selective possibilities of the human. All this 
seems, perhaps, entirely inconsequential — seems to be 
merely an adjustment of language and thought to a pre¬ 
conceived notion in order to make the notion good. 
But the seeming is superficial. We come back to our 
axiom, that every activity implies an actor, and then 
insist that the Universe calls for an Infinite Reality 
the actions of which express that Universe, finding 
freedom within it because the very nature of a true 
Infinite carries freedom as of its essence. The details 
of freedom in existences revealing that Reality are 
simply necessary deductions that “ put things together ” 
in one consistent Whole. 

Fourteenth Consideration. 

The Infinite Reality contains the possibilities of in¬ 
telligence. That which contains within itself, or is, the 
sole reason for its own existence, must, therefore, con¬ 
tain all intelligence — possibilities. If, moreover, we 
remember that a true Infinite is qualitative as well as 
quantitative,— means infinite in essence or nature, not 
merely an unlimited quantity of Reality,— we see that 


46 Creative Personality 

provisions of intelligence are carried with the very idea 
of this Infinite. 

The Infinite Reality must be conceived of as the 
background of all existence. We can not, therefore, 
posit in this Infinite anything other than the possibili¬ 
ties of all existences, except the pure essence of its own 
nature and the freedom of that nature to unfold such 
possibilities. We can not say that the Infinite Reality 
is actualized intelligence, because actualized intelligence 
is an expression of the Reality, and the expression can 
not be itself and its own background, or ground and 
source. We affirm that the Fundamental Reality, as 
Ground and Source of all existences, contains within 
itself simply the possibilities of such existences. In 
our thought, then, of Reality as Ground and Source, 
we say that it contains within itself infinite possibilities 
of infinite actualized manifestation. This means, for 
example, that itself provides in its nature for expres¬ 
sion in what we call freedom and intelligence. 

Fifteenth Consideration. 

The manifestation of the Fundamental Reality in 
the human self does not signify that the self is helpless 
in the exercise of its nature. It is, of course, helpless 
as regards being other than a human self. However 
long continued its evolution may be, it will never be¬ 
come an existence not human. But the evolution of 
the human self is an outcome of its action as such. 
This action has the freedom of its nature. The Funda¬ 
mental Reality expresses in that nature; gives to the 
human nature the same quality of freedom which itself 


A Study in Reality 


47. 


possesses. The Infinite freedom, qualitatively speak¬ 
ing, passes into the finite self. Within the sphere of 
the self, within the possibilities of the self, it is free ac¬ 
tivity that unfolds the self. If the self continues for¬ 
ever, the freedom will forever go with it. Evolution 
here becomes endless. In the plant or animal, the 
nature of the Fundamental Reality expresses in limita¬ 
tions on development of form and individual exhibits 
of the form. The plant can never pass out of its form 
into another form except as that process be a method 
of evolution of the Infinite Reality. So with the ani¬ 
mal. The processes of taking forms in the plant and 
animal realms arrives at finality at various points, so 
that the freedom of the objects is here merely the free¬ 
dom of the Reality to make toward its ends and stop 
there. In the human self this selective stopping point 
appears in the form of the self, but passes on therefrom 
to the idea of an endless development, always within 
the form, but always unfolding of the possibilities of 
that form. We may say the thing in this way: in an 
oak tree free unfoldment of Fundamental Reality 
stops, but in the human self such unfoldment never 
does stop, because never to stop is of the nature which 
Reality expresses in the individual. It is this power of 
unlimited free development that places man at the head 
of existence in the world. The more of his intelligence 
does not so place him, for that more is merely quantita¬ 
tive. The qualitative difference between man and all 
other existences in the world is a difference of essence 
and expression of the Fundamental Reality — as 
though man existed for unlimited development, while 


48 


Creative Personality 


plants and lower animals existed for development 
limited at some point therein. The more or less of 
intelligence classes human individuals as higher or 
lower, so to speak, but the unlimited possibilities of all 
humans in the way of development gives them supe¬ 
riority over plants and animals, on the one hand, and, 
on the other hand, that theoretical equality with one 
another on which we all insist. Instinctively the Real¬ 
ity which we represent asserts its freedom in the human 
self. 


Sixteenth Consideration. 

The Fundamental Reality embraces all existences. 
Its own Nature determines both the substance — the 
manifested content — of existences, and the mode of 
their self-expressioning activity. It provides their 
ways of being and their ways of doing. Nothing can 
exist apart from this Ground; nothing can express 
itself independently of this Source. In the sense sug¬ 
gested, Reality “ contains ” all forms of being. 

This conclusion means that the Fundamental Reality 
constitutes the possibility of the ether, of matter and 
force, and of personality. 

We may say that the ether provides the possibility 
of matter. It does not follow that matter must neces¬ 
sarily appear. Expression of the nature of ether might 
conceivably stop at proto-matter — something evolving 
toward matter. We may also say that matter provides 
the possibility of physical life — a product of chemical 
action, perhaps. Here, as well, such life is no logical 
necessity. Matter and physical life do not, as matter, 


A Study in Reality 


49 


as life, exist in the ether, are not identical with the 
ether as such. For example, one of the products of 
radio-activity is Helium. Helium does not exist in 
Radium; the two elements are chemically different. 
Helium appears as a result of the action of Radium 
under certain conditions. So, matter is “ contained ” 
in the ether, in the sense that it results from certain 
activities of ether. So, also, ether and matter do not 
exist as such in our Fundamental Reality, but are pos¬ 
sibilities which the action of Reality realizes in fact. 
The very essence and nature of Reality goes into ether, 
matter and personality, but the latter, as actualities, 
are not identical with the Reality, since cause and effect 
can not be one. They are real (are realities), but are 
not the Reality. Metaphysical form is not metaphysi¬ 
cal substance — as our personal life is not the psychic 
self. Always, substance contains the possibility of 
form-expression. 

We may now say that the Fundamental Reality pro¬ 
vides in its nature for ether, matter and personality. 
Reality, therefore, “ contains ” as follows: 

The ether, and so, every variety of etheric force, 
such as light, electricity, magnetism — all “ stresses,” 
“ strains,” vibrations, undulations, waves, rays, vor¬ 
tices, etc., supposed by science; 

Matter, and so, the chemical elements and com¬ 
pounds and their properties and reactions, together 
with every material force and life, including the prin¬ 
ciples of evolution; (Reality provides all the details 
of the inorganic and organic worlds.) 

Personality, in the sense of involving the elements 


50 


Creative Personality 


which, on organization, constitute person. Funda¬ 
mental Reality is the Ground, one phase of the nature 
of which is personal. It thus provides the possibility 
of infinite and finite personalities. It organizes itself 
into incessant expression of its nature, into an Infinite 
Personality, eternally coexistent with itself, but not, as 
personality, metaphysically identical with itself. The 
Reality provides in its nature all other personalities, 
which are partakers of its nature, yet not of metaphys¬ 
ically identical existence, and so, as concerns the Real¬ 
ity, not directly derived from the Infinite Personality, 
but equally actual and separate in origin. As the 
human self is the ground and source of finite personal 
activities, and as the Infinite Self is the Ground and 
Source of the infinite Activities, so is Fundamental 
Reality the Ground and Source of the Infinite Per¬ 
sonality. The Reality eternally organizes the Deific 
Person by free expression of its own nature, but therein 
realizes its personal possibilities in toto. In every 
other existence its nature is freely but limitedly real¬ 
ized. As, therefore, the Infinite Person is infinitely 
free, so each inferior manifestation is free within the 
limits of its expression of the Fundamental Reality. 

We believe that the Reality, from all eternity, by 
free expression of its Nature, organizes finite per¬ 
sonalities. The Reality is the Ground of all exist¬ 
ences. Metaphysically speaking, we may say that it 
is Ground and Source of Deity, and Man, and every 
type of personal being. 

It is to be emphasized that, metaphysically speak¬ 
ing, our conception gives man and every individual 


A Study in Reality 


51 


human free and independent origin in Reality — al¬ 
though, since the Reality, Infinite and Eternal, or¬ 
ganizes itself into the Infinite and Eternal Personality, 
the latter is forever the Existence through which fi¬ 
nite personalities appear. To illustrate: Reality ex¬ 
presses itself in material objects through the ether, 
but the origin of the ether and the origin of material 
objects are not identical. Finite personalities originate 
in Reality expressing itself through the Infinite Per¬ 
sonality, so that here also origins are separate and, as 
such, independent. It is the action of the Nature of 
the Fundamental Reality that originates the two types 
of personality, and this fact it is that rescues the finite 
personality from bondage to any Will other than its 
own. Your life is determined solely by the Nature 
of Fundamental Reality as expressed in your will, 
never by some Infinite Personal Will, conceived as 
superior to such Reality, or even as in essence of a 
superior-different nature to your own nature and will. 

The Fundamental Reality, therefore, “ contains ” 
every Element of Personal Existence. It provides for 
the organized body-form of the human person, that 
marvelous fact called physical life, and all the possi¬ 
bilities of the mental self, and the very being of the 
self. We partially uncover the nature of the Reality 
when we say that it “ contains ” Will, Feeling, 
Thought — the latter involving Sensation, Perception, 
Conception, Judgment. Here, then, in the very Nature 
of Reality, we find the First Principles of Mind — 
those Primary Ideas and Laws of the Mental Life 
without which no thought is possible,— to-wit: 


52 


Creative Personality 


Being (an Idea which gets its origin from the men¬ 
tal law that every activity must have an actor — a 
Meaning placed by a law of mind as ground and source 
of all the meanings of all existences) ; 

Action (an Idea which springs from the law of mind 
that Power always associates with Being — the idea of 
Action being here the idea of the putting forth of 
such power) ; 

Movement (an Idea which springs from the mental 
law that the exercise of power on any material object 
always associates with change of space-relation of that 
object to other objects — the change being that Idea, 
the idea of such change being that Idea of Movement) ; 

Relation (an Idea which springs from the mental 
law that all existences are associated in some way, 
and that all associations have some meaning — the 
meaning of any such association being the Idea of 
Relation) ; 

Quality (an Idea which gets origin from the mental 
law that mind always gives fixed nature-meaning to 
any manifestation of being — our interpretation of 
such manifestation being our idea of its nature, and 
so, of the nature of the being — the nature-meaning, 
or Idea, being Quality) ; 

Sequence (an Idea of relation derived from the law 
that associated existences or events having no other 
intermediaries must be interpreted as following — the 
following-order Idea being Sequence) ; 

Disjunction (an Idea of Association having no de¬ 
termining order or principle of order) ; 


A Study in Reality 


53 


Quantity, including Number (an Idea springing 
from the mental law that all existence less than in¬ 
finite have some total limit, and so, that any finite ex¬ 
istence may be given any total limit by separation from 
the absolute total); 

Number, including Unity and Plurality (an Idea de¬ 
rived from the mental law that any total of quantity 
may be separated into a sequence of parts each of 
which is regarded as undivided) ; 

Unity (an Idea of any total or any indivisible ex¬ 
istence, in the absolute sense and applied in any rela¬ 
tive sense) ; 

Plurality (an Idea having the meaning of more than 
one associated object, these being conceived as uni¬ 
ties) ; 

Identity (an Idea of absolute excluding sameness of 
existence) ; 

Diversity (Difference) (an Idea involving any de¬ 
gree of the absence of identity or of sameness) ; 

Cause (an Idea which springs from the mental law 
that every change in existences and events must have 
origin in a something that is greater or more potent 
than the change itself — Pure Cause being an Idea in¬ 
volving no idea of resulting changes in itself) ; 

Effect (an Idea of change not self-produced) ; 

Space (an Idea which springs from the mental law 
that any two or more existences must be separated by 
one or more separated and intermediary existences, 
for, if we could perceive only an absolutely unitary 
and identical existence, the Idea of Space could not 


54 


Creative Personality 


arise in mind — this Idea does not seem to depend on 
the existence of matter but appears to result from an 
inveterate and a necessary habit of mental view) ; 

Time (an Idea derived from the mental law that 
any two or more events must be associated either with 
the fact or the possibility of other events intermediary 
— the possible or actual association being a sequence, 
and the idea of such sequence having for one of its 
meanings the Idea of Time). 

Such Ideas are necessary to mind. The conditions 
that give them possibility obtain in the Fundamental 
Reality. They are basic to personality, and have their 
ground in the Ground and Source of the Universe. 
The Universe, therefore , is so constituted that ideal 
Unite mind interprets the presentations of the Universe 
to it in terms corresponding to the presentation. The 
Ideas are called “ innate,” but are really products of 
reflective experience, which infallibly derives them 
from the universal facts. Hence, we say, the Funda¬ 
mental Reality contains or provides them, and we in¬ 
troduce them here because they are necessary to any 
intelligent understanding of the world of matter, force 
and personality. 

The conditions involved might exist were no in¬ 
telligence existent, were all existences matter and force 
only, but the Ideas, which are the meanings of the con¬ 
ditions, are purely products of mental action under 
law. Any invalidation of the law and the Ideas would 
destroy thought. Attempts have been made to over¬ 
throw these Primary Principles of thought, but al¬ 
ways the universal conditions which we interpret in 


A Study in Reality 


55 


the Ideas remain and confront us. These facts con¬ 
stitute a demand imperative that we surrender to the 
Necessary Laws and Fundamental Ideas of all ra¬ 
tional mentality. 

Seventeenth Consideration. 

The Universe is manifested intelligence. Repeat¬ 
ing somewhat, we observe that Ideas above indicated 
are inherent or conditioned in the very Nature of 
Fundamental Reality. The Reality organizes Exist¬ 
ences in ways of doing which constitute the laws in¬ 
volved in the Ideas. We note the facts, formulate 
the laws, and so, think the Ideas. Thus, we speak of 
the Law and Idea of Cause, of Being, of Effect, of 
Space, of Time, of Relation, of Quality, of Action, of 
Quantity, of Number, of Identity, of Diversity, of 
Unity, of Plurality, etc., of force, matter, life, and 
personality. We derive the Ideas from experience and 
reflection pertaining to facts, and state the results of 
this mental action as laws which necessitate conditions 
of existence to which we give the meaning of the 
Ideas. No system of worlds organized otherwise than 
on lines expressive of these Ideas is by us conceivable. 
And to us a mind not dependent on these Ideas for 
its very working in any rational way is impossible. 
Hence, as we read the Universe, we employ the Ideas, 
and feel that they correctly represent the conditions 
involved, and come at last to hold that the Ideas ex¬ 
haust the Universe for thought, so far as we know. 
The conditions and Ideas thus exhaust the Nature of 
Fundamental Reality so far as manifested in the Uni- 


56 


Creative Personality 


verse which we know. We therefore affirm that the 
Ideas and conditions and laws are of the very essence 
and nature of Reality. 

Since we conceive of finite minds as intelligent, we 
refer these Ideas to a Ground and Source, the Nature 
of which must provide for manifestation giving rise 
to such Ideas in finite minds, and we thus conclude 
that the manifestations (the total Universe) are in¬ 
telligent. Since we find intelligence in the manifested 
Universe, we can not locate the intelligence in the 
Ground, or the Fundamental Reality, because this 
would be to make an expression of Reality in its own 
Ground, and, therefore, we merely conceive of the 
Reality as providing in its Nature for expressions of 
what we are compelled to call intelligence. 

This conclusion does not contradict the common no¬ 
tions of science. The Universe is ether, it is matter, 
it is force, it is personality, it is whatever rational 
thinking determines it to be, but these all express our 
Primary Ideas or First Principles of mind-action, and 
are apparently products of the activity of a Funda¬ 
mental Reality which forever acts in accordance with 
such principles and forever contains all the elements 
of mind. In the sense thus indicated it is legitimate 
to affirm: Human thought is as purely substantial as is 
anything material, or, All existences express the same 
Fundamental Reality. In this unquestionable Base, 
the Universe of matter and the Universe of mind are 
one. We can conceive that mind in matter may 
originate the Ideas of matter and mind as two phases 
of the one Reality. We can not conceive that exist- 


A'Study in Reality 


57 


ence taken as matter only and absolutely could origi¬ 
nate the Idea of Mind. The Nature of our Funda¬ 
mental Reality is purely metaphysical. The Universe 
is phenomenally material in part, but essentially it is 
of the order of manifested intelligence. 

We briefly summarize the process by which we reach 
the Fundamental Reality in this way. We ourselves 
find within certain thoughts or mental activities. The 
law that every activity demands an actor impels us to 
assert an inner self as the actor behind these mental 
activities. But, since we only know the self through 
the activities, that is, by necessary inference, it seems 
as though the self also consists of activities, and our 
law requires that we find the actor putting forth the 
activities constituting the self. This drives us out into 
a search for the ultimate actor behind the self, behind 
the matter, behind the ether, behind the manifested 
Universe. Thus we land in a conception of the Funda¬ 
mental Reality. 

The further discussion of the latter will be found in 
the ensuing chapter. 

From the preceding studies issue several practical 
suggestions, which will here be given in the form of 
regimes. 

Practical Regimes. 

The present chapter has value, above that of the 
thought set forth, in the preparation of a mental mood 
for these regimes. You are, therefore, invited to ab¬ 
sorb into your life the regulative principles: 

First — Regime of Oneness with the Infinite . The 


58 


Creative Personality 


Fundamental Reality manifests in your self and body, 
precisely as truly as in Deity and the Universe. You 
share its nature as the Christian Bible declares in the 
words, “ Partakers of the Divine Nature.” You are, 
therefore, a phase of that Reality. You express the 
great basic Fact of all existence. You may cultivate 
a consciousness of this oneness with Reality which 
shall be to you a Cosmic Consciousness. In order 
thereto, you are urged to affirm daily for long as fol¬ 
lows : “ I am the Fundamental Reality. I myself 

share in the Consciousness of worlds.” As you pro¬ 
ceed to so affirm from day to day, you should find 
yourself growing finer and greater in all your mental 
life. 

Second — Regime of Expanding Power . Your 
basic nature contains the conditions of all the power 
you will ever develop. You are, for that reason, in¬ 
vited to realize more and more your personal possi¬ 
bilities in this respect. The goal here will always re¬ 
cede, but the recession will show that the realization 
is always going on. You can consciously assist the 
process by the daily assertion: “ My power of mani¬ 

festation is infinite. I realize more and more in actual 
growth the limitless possibilities of my nature. I am 
the infinitely Real. I express in my life the Funda¬ 
mental Reality.” 

Third — Regime of Conscious Superiority. While 
all humans manifest Reality, they are not all equally 
developed. As phases of Reality we are all equals, 
but as developments of the same Source, we differ. 
The practical truth is this: that, if each man has his 


59 


A Study in Reality 

superiors, each has as well his inferiors. It is law 
that the sense of inferiority never unfolds the Funda¬ 
mental Reality within the human. Reality loves a large 
consciousness of itself. Growth does not follow the 
lead of small ideas. Expansion can not ensue self¬ 
depreciation. You are, therefore, urged to eliminate 
the small from your thought, and to cease comparing 
yourself with superiors so-called, and you are invited 
to remember, no matter who you are, that you are 
surely superior to many other people in respect to per¬ 
sonal development of the Fundamental Reality. This 
result may be accomplished by affirming daily, with 
emphasis and assurance: “I am now conscious — 
splendidly conscious — of my own Reality, powers and 
superiority. I invite the large. I assert the greatness 
that is mine.” 

Fourth — Regime of Life-Freedom. Each one of 
us exhibits the process of Reality’s unfoldment into 
human personality — as and for an individual human. 
No objection can be urged to this process of unfold¬ 
ment. The process which constitutes the human per¬ 
son carries with it the freedom to individuate itself — 
to realize in each particular person. This means that 
each human has a right to express his own nature — 
to be himself. Truly to be one’s self is to realize one’s 
best estate — Reality individuating in harmony with all 
other selves. We find in our freedom that certain 
activities do not seem to realize such best estate. The 
right to object to any person’s freedom of being him¬ 
self, therefore, depends on the question of interference 
or non-interference with the true freedom of others. 


60 


Creative Personality 


Within the limits thus indicated, every human has the 
right to live his own life precisely as he will. Our 
regime concerns this right. You are invited to be 
yourself, and in order to do this, to affirm the right 
somewhat as follows: “ I live my own life, freely 

and fearlessly. My desires and tendencies, so far as 
they do not, or ought not to, interfere with the best 
interests of others, are to me laws of the Infinite 
Reality. I throw off all shackles. I express my own 
nature to the utmost.” 

Fifth — Regime of Courage for Happiness . The 
Fundamental Reality manifesting in your self provides 
all the elements of happiness. Freedom to realize 
one’s greatest happiness involves some dangers, since 
a degree of danger goes with all freedom. The dan¬ 
ger attending freedom in living your own life is 
limited, however, by your capacity for experience. 
Beyond your capacity to experience results of freedom 
its dangers have to you no meaning. If you are satis¬ 
fied, then, that living your own life, in any respect, will 
bring to you more unhappiness than happiness — more 
undesirable experiences than desirable — courage is 
called upon to limit your activities accordingly. If you 
are satisfied of the reverse, courage may be demanded 
to realize your desires and tendencies in the face of all 
opposition. Your individual freedom may involve the 
desires and tendencies of others, but your sole question, 
then, is this: “ Will living my own life bring to me 

greatest happiness and welfare?” If you believe that 
such will be the result, Reality calls for the courage 
to go on following your desires, working out your 


61 


A Study in Reality 

tendencies, regardless of apparent consequences to 
others, on the ground that the final outcome of the 
free expression of Reality will take its own care of 
such others. To believe and act on this latter truth is 
to have the courage of your own freedom. And it 
is even so. You are, therefore, invited to now deter¬ 
mine that your life is yours alone, in the sense in¬ 
dicated, and that you will henceforth live that life 
freely, independently and happily. Assert daily: “I 
have the courage to find happiness in realizing my own 
nature to the utmost, wherever satisfied that doing so 
will bring more happiness than unhappiness. I put 
unlimited confidence in the final outworking of the 
Fundamental Reality.” 

The above regimes are practical because their prin¬ 
ciple is self-suggestion. The suggestions to self, how¬ 
ever, go more deeply than to the ordinary workings of 
the mind. They must penetrate into what we may 
here call the “ subconscious ” mental conditions. The 
quoted affirmations of the regimes should be made for 
long, each for a separate continuous period, say ten 
minutes, one set for a day, perhaps, then another for 
another day, and so on. The reason for this work is 
seen in the fact that such repetitions come in due time 
to inspire subconscious mental activities tending to con¬ 
tinue and to regulate all the workings of the ordinary 
mental states. The result will be enlargement and 
enrichment of the entire personal thought and life. 

The rather long and metaphysical discussion of this 
chapter is now, it is hoped, justified. In no other 
way could a foundation for the regimes be laid. If 


62 


Creative Personality 


the chapter has seemed difficult, you are invited to re¬ 
member that the foundation for the regimes is guaran¬ 
teed to be worth a good deal of mental labor. Finis 
coronat opus. 

Our conception of a Fundamental Reality, it may 
now be noted, constitutes also a foundation on which 
the present book will be built. The idea that every 
human is a phase of such Reality runs all through 
the following pages, and determines both their char¬ 
acter and the end sought in the total work before us. 
In maintaining this idea, we give this study of human 
person an adequate Ground, and do not leave it hung 
in air like a mirage in a desert of fruitless thought. 


LAW: Fundamental Reality Unites All 
Existences in One Nature. 


CHAPTER III. 

REALITY OF THE HUMAN SELF AND OF WORLDS. 

P SYCHOLOGY, regarded as the science of the 
facts, principles and laws of the knowing hu¬ 
man self, must rest on a fundamental truth — 
the reality of its subject and of the world in which that 
subject comes into being and is developed. If the 
science were made to embrace the human mind only, 
our discussion would concern merely our mental ac¬ 
tivities. The larger definition is here preferred be¬ 
cause we are thus engaged with the Ground, Cause 
and Support of those activities, together with the 
Ground, Support and Cause of the world in and by 
which they are induced. We shall expand our study 
for these reasons. An additional motive appears in 
the fact that the study will thus become something 
more than a discussion of mental operations, become 
as well practical and inspirational. This treatment 
overlaps considerably the usual field occupied by the 
science, and is especially taboo by those writers who 
appear to hold that the soul, or the self, is foreign to 
their investigations. Since the self is the root of the 
whole matter, we indicate the scope of the science in 
order to a clear understanding of the work before 
us. 


63 


64 


Creative Personality 


Scope of Psychology. 

We hold that the true subject of Psychology is given 
us in the human self that knows — in the knower — 
not merely the knowing activities. Animal Psy¬ 
chology is a systematized interpretation of animal men¬ 
tality in terms of human Psychology, and is here dis¬ 
regarded. Experimental Psychology and the Psy¬ 
chology of Childhood are also eliminated from the 
work in hand, since each would demand a volume in 
itself — many volumes, indeed. Our present study 
concerns the chief factors for inspirational and prac¬ 
tical purposes, and is, even at that, so vast that limita¬ 
tions must mark the results all the way. The sub¬ 
ject concerns the human body from two points of 
view: as a product of the self in certain activities of 
appropriation and organization, and as an instrument 
for certain other activities in knowing. 

The subject also covers all the mental operations — 
those which employ the physical instrument in relation 
to the external world — the sense-organs — and in re¬ 
lation to the sense-organs, the brain, together with 
the relation of the operation among themselves. 

The subject involves certain other obscure opera¬ 
tions of the self which are commonly called subcon¬ 
scious, but which we prefer to define as Pre-mental, 
since they are prior to the familiar activities of mind. 

The subject also embraces an external world so 
far as the latter’s activities induce reaction in the 
self, and so far as it is determined to be real. 

The subject concerns that which puts forth the pre- 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 65 

mental and the mental activities. This is here called 
the self for the reason that it appears as a basic en¬ 
tity in our analysis of person, is the entity referred to 
in our common speech when we think of the “ core ” 
of the idea or the fact of person. The self is the 
organizer of both body and mind, and is the knower 
in all the interpretations of itself and worlds. The 
self it is that feels, thinks, wills. 

The subject also includes the psychic factor, which 
may be called the quoted root of the self just referred 
to, and is the first manifestation of Reality on its way 
toward person. 

Asserting, then, that Psychology embraces the self 
and the mind and the world as a subject of knowing, 
we proceed with the work in hand. Knowing implies 
a knower and an object known. We take up the lat¬ 
ter implication in a discussion of six propositions or 
canons, as follows: 

Certain Canons of Knowing. 

1. The reality of the self implies the reality of the 
world or not-self and vice versa. 

2. Only the real in some sense is knowable in any 
sense. 

3. That which is knowable in any sense is real in 
some sense. 

4. We are compelled to describe reality in terms 
of the knowing process. 

5. The kind of reality known is determined for 
our thought by the knowing process involved. 

6. When, between two existences, the world and 


66 


Creative Personality 


the self, the latter taken as object of knowing, there 
stands a third, the self taken as knower, and the two 
former are given to the third in different ways, so that 
the knowledge of each demands a knowing process 
and a language which are different from the process 
and language of the other, both so-called existences are 
to be accepted as real in some definite sense. 

7. In the study of reality we can pause only with 
that which appears to be ultimate, and in our judg¬ 
ment on two or more apparently ultimate realities we 
are compelled to exclude as ultimate that which is less 
than infinite. 

8. In our determination of that kind of reality 
which is for our thought ultimate and infinite, we are 
compelled to conceive it in terms of the ultimate ele¬ 
ments of our own nature. 

These canons will now be taken up in the order 
named. 


The First Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: The reality of the self implies the reality 
of the not-self, or world, and the reality of the not- 
self, or world, implies the reality of the self . 

Discussed: The reality of the self implies the 
reality of the not-self. If the self is not real, knowing 
is not real, and there is no not-self; and if the knowing 
is merely by the not-self, knowing is false for us, and 
there is to that knowing no not-self. If the not-self 
is not real, the knowing is a fiction of the self — the 
self is all. There is, then, no not-self acting upon the 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 67 

self and inducing self-reaction in knowing. In this 
case the self acts upon the self and induces the re¬ 
actions of knowing, with the fiction supposed that the 
knowing has an external object. Thus, knowing loses 
its value, some degree of certainty, and the actual Uni¬ 
verse reduces to individual thought totally induced by 
the individual inner activities of the self. The fact 
which obviates this absurdity is our common experience 
in which we all approximately gain the same world 
called the not-self, and conduct the affairs of life on 
that universal similarity. That experience climaxes 
the considerations here suggested. In some way real¬ 
ity insists on being abroad. 

Our mental constitution drives us to this conclusion: 
The basic fact about the self and worlds is their actual 
reality. Objects are not shadows, nor are we our¬ 
selves phantoms. Some sort of reality surrounds us 
and pervades us. When we seek to run this reality 
down to its lair and to grasp it, it seems to elude us, 
yet all the time we know it is there, and we are certain 
that if only we had “ eyes to see,” and “ ears to hear,” 
and “ reason to think,” we should make it out. 

We are endowed with precisely these furnishings, 
the “ eyes to see,” and the “ ears to hear,” and the 
“ reason to think.” This means that we have the 
power to apprehend, and we have the power to draw 
necessary conclusions — the power to know. We ap¬ 
prehend through physical organs fitted to the purpose, 
that is, in sense-perception. We draw the conclusions 
by mental operations necessitated by the facts and the 
nature of mind. 


68 


Creative Personality 


The Second Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: Only the real is knowable. 

Discussed: Whatever is knowable in any sense is 
real in some sense. The non-existent can not be an 
object of knowing. We may conceive the idea of non¬ 
existence, but the object of the knowing in this case 
is the negation of existence. When we deny some 
specific existence, we have an idea of limited non-ex¬ 
istence, and know that idea, but we can not know the 
non-existent, and know that idea, but we can not know 
the non-existent itself, because we have denied it. The 
denied existence, “ some,” may be any specified ex¬ 
istence, and we then know the specified negation. 
When we verbally deny all existence, we have the idea 
of all embracing non-existence, and the idea only is 
known. Were there no other existence than the inner 
self, capable in theory of knowing, the activity of 
knowing would necessarily involve some other inner 
activity for object of knowing. If the self could put 
forth only a single activity, the knowing process would 
then be impossible, since the knowing process would 
have no other object than the self, and the single 
activity would be one with a reacting activity in know¬ 
ing at the same time. Reality only can be known, and 
it must obtain aside from any activity in which it is be¬ 
come known. 

Only that which is real in some sense is knowable in 
any sense. The reality may be that of some ultimate 
and infinite existence. It may be that of some ulti¬ 
mate and infinite Person. It may be that of varying 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 69 

phases of the manifestation to us of some ultimate 
Cause or Support. It may be varying phases of the 
manifestation to us of these, the latter manifestations. 
It may be the Fundamental Reality of the preceding 
chapter, or it may be Deity, or it may be matter, life, 
or spirit human, or it may be mere activities, facts, 
events, movements, sequences, etc., etc., etc. But, this 
is true: only as we have reality can we have knowl¬ 
edge. For this is knowledge: the certainty, more or 
less definite, that our mental reactions — our appre¬ 
hensions and conceptions and conclusions — corre¬ 
spond with reality of some kind and order. In the 
very act of saying that we know, we put down the 
fact — some sort of reality. 

The Third Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: That which is knowable in any sense is 
real in some sense . 

Discussed: The sense in which we know has been 
analyzed as apprehending, as comprehending, and as 
intensively understanding. We can only know the 
Fundamental Reality by comprehending and inten¬ 
sively understanding — that is, by reasoning — and 
that only in part, as a necessary inference from all the 
facts before us and induced by the mental constitution. 

This is also true as concerns Deity and the meta¬ 
physical relation of Deity to the Fundamental Reality. 

We know all other realities in one or the other of all 
the three processes of knowing indicated above. 

In whatever sense the knowing occurs, it affirms ex¬ 
istence of some order. By so much as we are assured 


70 


Creative Personality 


that we actually know, by so much do we certify real¬ 
ity, whatever its nature. The knowing process affirms, 
in the long run, the actuality of its object. In a gen¬ 
eral way mere apprehension, when continued and in¬ 
tensified, accomplishes this result, but apprehension 
multiplied into comprehension and intensive under¬ 
standing brings us to the utmost possible certainty that 
reality is actually before us. Our individual best 
critical thought is especially reliable as it more and 
more approximates the best critical thought of the 
race. The nature of our mental life demands that we 
seek to make sure in our knowing, and that we finally 
accept our conclusions as, for the time being at least, 
correct. We know reality in various ways, and are 
sure that, therefore, the knowing has some actual ob¬ 
ject. The nature of the object is still before us for 
determination. 

The Fourth Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: We are compelled to describe reality in 
terms of the knowing process. 

Discussed: We know reality in apprehension, com¬ 
prehension and intensive understanding. We appre¬ 
hend various objects about us by employing the or¬ 
gans of sense. We apprehend various inner activities 
without the use of such organs. We comprehend and 
intensively understand in both cases when reason mul¬ 
tiplies apprehension into comprehension, and multiplies 
comprehension into intensive understanding. In these 
latter ways we obtain our knowledge about surround¬ 
ing objects in all nameable ways except the one way 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 71 

of apprehension through the sense-organs. The ex¬ 
ception constitutes the reason for the fact that we 
describe reality in at least two general varieties of 
ways. 

Thus, we describe external objects (including the 
physical body) as material, as occupying space, as hav¬ 
ing three dimensions, length, breadth and thickness, as 
having various qualities, such as color, form, size, 
weight, hardness, softness, elasticity, impenetrability, 
fragrance, tastes, etc., etc., as moving, as having in¬ 
ertia, as appearing and disappearing — always as act¬ 
ing upon us in ten thousand ways that involve the 
sense-organs. We see objects. We hear sounds. 
We taste objects. We smell objects. We touch ob¬ 
jects. Thus we apprehend reality as material, and 
describe it in what are called material terms. If we 
seem ever to apprehend material things in subconscious 
ways,— without the intervention of the organs of 
sense,— we still employ the same language in our de¬ 
scriptions of them. This fact has appeared in every 
language in our descriptions of them. This fact has 
appeared in every language man has developed. 

In describing all other kinds of reality, we employ 
another language. If “ material” words are now 
used, this fact is shown to be correct in that such words 
are understood to be figurative. We never describe 
the self as material, as occupying space, as having 
length, breadth and thickness, as having weight, color, 
shape, density, elasticity, etc. We do not say that 
the self moves; we say it acts. We never affirm that 
we see it, touch it, hear it, taste it, smell it, except in 


72 


Creative Personality 


figurative language. So, also, with reference to the 
inner activities of the self. The language of con¬ 
sciousness and self-consciousness, of sensation, sense- 
perception, emotions, memory, imagination, reasoning, 
will, is the language of the non-material so far as con¬ 
cerns their descriptions. All the meanings which the 
self constitutes for itself and its inner actions — all 
ideas and thought-processes — demand descriptive 
words indicative of non-material existence. The sci¬ 
ence of Farraday had no material shape. We do not 
attempt to weigh Shakespeare’s “ Hamlet.” Kant’s 
philosophy did not occupy space. The material crea¬ 
tions of Art were all preceded by the immaterial. The 
mental elements of civilization have no invoice in the 
arena of the senses. 

When these languages are crossed and are not 
figuratively employed, confusion ensues. And the 
thinker or writer who disregards the differences indi¬ 
cated, whether in science or in philosophy, makes un¬ 
derstanding impossible, and if he reduces the self and 
its activities to reality describable in material terms, 
he obviates both the need and the value of his think¬ 
ing. 

The fact that we have two kinds of language for 
description of reality implies that the next canon is 
true. 


The Fifth Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: The kind of reality known is determined 
for our thought by the knowing process involved . 
Discussed: This follows necessarily from the pre- 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 73 

ceding canon. The act of knowing constitutes mean¬ 
ing for any action upon the self, whether from the 
world external or from the world inner. The self 
may be acted upon by its own body, or by any existence 
beyond body. Such action upon the self may also 
originate within the self. When we know such action, 
we constitute our reaction thereto its meaning; that 
is, we interpret the action upon us. This interpreta¬ 
tive meaning — this reaction-meaning — embraces the 
following: 

(A) Externality. There is action upon us from 
without. The meaning is within, but it would never 
arise save for some inducement, and that inducement 
is not immediately of the self, but is immediately of a 
not-self. 

(B) The meaning asserts some sort of reality, on 
the principle that every action demands an actor. The 
activities are not a mere system, having no support; 
they are actual in themselves, and they proceed from a 
substantial something that has the power to manifest 
them. We apprehend this something real through the 
senses, and the general meaning is given the name, mat¬ 
ter— including the bodies of other persons. 

(C) This eternal reality induces the general mean¬ 
ing in our thought of Action, since it is an agent af¬ 
fecting us by means of the sense-organs. All being 
seems to be active. Just this universal fact gives rise 
to the notion: an actuality acting upon us in ten thou¬ 
sand ways. 

(D) In time, we come to sort out, so to speak, the 
various kinds of action upon us, and to form other 


74 


Creative Personality 


more limited, yet still general, meanings which we 
call the qualities of things. The qualities pertain to 
the things, but the things are phases of the active be¬ 
ing external to us, and are thus the qualities of that 
being — in this case, matter. 

A similar process obtains with reference to the self 
and other non-material existences. The action upon 
us of the latter necessitates the meanings (A), Ex¬ 
ternality; (B), Being; (C), Action; (D), Qualities. 

Similarly, again, in regard to the inner self. All be¬ 
ing is active, and the self acts upon itself in ways that 
give the meanings of Consciousness and Self-Con¬ 
sciousness. In this case, all activities occur within, 
and the general meaning is, Internality. The activi¬ 
ties demand a support in some kind of being, which is 
the self. 

The self acts upon the self in the reaction and gen¬ 
eral “ current ” of its thoughts, feelings and will. In 
the sense that the actor can not be identified with the 
activities, the latter are external to the former. We 
have here, again, the general notion of Action, and 
when we assort the activities, we classify them under 
subordinate, yet still limited general meanings — the 
Qualities of the self. 

Possessed ourselves of bodies like the bodies of 
other apparent persons, apprehending other bodies 
through the senses, and interpreting what the senses 
give us concerning the evident possessors of such 
bodies, we interpret the total results as other selves, 
like us, but external to us. 

When we reflect on the Qualities of the self and the 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 75 

other selves, we immediately enter a set of meanings 
altogether different from those given us by the action 
of matter. The language of what we call spiritual 
or psychic existence and that of material existence re¬ 
veal this difference, as already noted. But the differ¬ 
ence in language expresses a compulsion of our mental 
nature. We say, for example, matter and spirit, and 
physical and psychic qualities, because we think them. 
The self constitutes the meanings in both cases in pre¬ 
cisely the same way — by reaction to action upon it — 
but the meanings themselves instantly fly apart and re¬ 
fuse to be identified in any acceptation. 

The reason for this stubborn fact is found in the dif¬ 
ference of the knowing processes. The one process 
is reaction to the activities of external being which can 
give us no other than the meanings of matter and its 
qualities. The other process is reaction of a kind of 
being, external or internal, which can give us no other 
meanings than spirit and its qualities. This difference 
in meaning is inherent in the nature of the self. 
When it knows in one way, it thinks in terms deter¬ 
mined by that way. When it knows in a different 
manner, it thinks correspondingly. 

We thus appear to have made out two varieties of 
reality in the meanings of our thought, one of which 
we call matter and the other of which we call spirit. 
This gives us a footing with our study, but the con¬ 
clusions leave several considerations altogether un¬ 
cleared. The idea of two kinds of reality may turn 
out to be inconsistent. The possible inconsistency is a 
trouble now demanding attention. 


76 


Creative Personality 


The Sixth Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: When, between two existences, the world 
and the self, the latter taken as an object of knowing, 
there stands a third, the self taken as knower, and the 
two former are given to the third in different ways, so 
that the knowledge of each demands a knowing proc¬ 
ess and a language which are different from the proc¬ 
ess and language of the other, both so-called existences 
are to be accepted as real in some definite sense. 

Discussed: The mutual relations of matter and 
spirit may be indicated in several definite statements, 
as follows: 

Statement One. In our common experience the two 
actualities are neither contradictory nor exclusive. 
The self comes to self-consciousness in a physical 
body, which body it has organized out of matter and 
which it employs both for thought and for life. So, 
also, the self finds itself in contact, through the sense- 
organs, with external matter, and by means of its in¬ 
teraction with the Universe, builds up its inner world 
of feelings, thinking, willing. So, also, does the self, 
use that outer world of matter for innumerable pur¬ 
poses. Factual experience proves the two kinds of 
reality to be the most intimate associates and friends. 

We see, then, that the idea of a self never contra¬ 
dicts, denies or excludes the idea of a material world 
external to the self. Both ideas are absolutely con¬ 
sistent with each other. The notion of a self within 
a material world is entirely legitimate. The notion 
of a self interacting with a material world and the no- 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 77 

tion of a world acting upon a self raise no mental con¬ 
fusion in our mental atmosphere, although the two 
notions may suggest many difficult problems. The 
idea of a self acting as a knower of the external world 
and of itself acting as an intelligence (“a chooser- 
between”)—these ideas do violence to nothing in 
our mental nature. And the notion of a self as an 
organized living reality which is active in certain ways 
called feeling, willing, thinking, and so is capable of the 
states called consciousness and self-consciousness (a 
complex of the ways of knowing), demands that it 
have objects for knowing: such as, on the one hand, 
itself, and on the other hand a non-self; and further¬ 
more, demands that these objects be actual, without 
doubt or quibble. It is only when critical reflection 
begins to construct a theory of harmony between the 
two existences, matter and spirit, that our trouble 
arises. 

Statement Two. In critical thought the two ap¬ 
parent facts, a spiritual self and a physical world, seem 
contradictory because they are precisely two and not 
one. They certainly seem to be different in toto. 
Matter and spirit, in themselves, refuse to be identified. 
Each is exactly itself, and not the other. Moreover, 
the two facts appear to exhibit toward each other a 
kind of hostility. Matter appears to be an enemy to 
the self if not controlled, and absolute control is 
perhaps never achieved. Spirit also assails matter 
in innumerable ways and with innumerable weapons. 
Matter strives to swamp the self, to beat it down, to 
complicate troubles, to annihilate it. The self resists, 


78 


Creative Personality 


gives battle, rises from every defeat and gains added 
control, until a last overwhelming event — death. 
Even here, spirit sings a death-song of triumph, since 
it invents — out of its inexhaustible resources — re¬ 
ligion and religion’s immortality. Religion is the final 
expression of the hostility of matter and spirit. 

Statement Three. The conflict of thought based on 
the apparent extreme difference between matter and 
spirit is age-long, and it finds no armistice so long as 
thought goes no farther than the ideas of matter and 
spirit as final realities. When reflection begins to ask 
concerning the ultimate meaning of matter and the 
ultimate meaning of spirit, it discovers that its proc¬ 
esses of knowing must be analyzed and the results of 
knowing must be more definitely decided. In the end, 
thought discovers that it has taken several important 
steps and reached a final conclusion, which leaves mat¬ 
ter and spirit as actual as they seemed to be before, 
but leaves them again in entire harmony both for life 
and for science. 

The process of knowing, so far as concerns the pres¬ 
ent purpose, analyzes into the following factors. We 
deal, first, with some sort of action upon the mental 
self. Every process of knowing involves, as its in¬ 
ducement, action affecting the self, exciting its re¬ 
action in knowing. The reaction constitutes the know¬ 
ing, and is always a meaning. No reaction can other¬ 
wise occur in the self. The reaction-meaning may be 
induced by self-action or by action external to the self. 
It is evident, then, that the knowing is an action of 
the self getting meaning out of some action upon it. 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 79 

The case may be put thus: no knowing except in re¬ 
action constituting meaning; hence, no reaction-mean¬ 
ing induced by any actor — self or world — save 
through the action of the actor. Direct knowing of 
the actor, therefore, is precluded by the very process 
of knowing. When any actor affects us, it is the ac¬ 
tion that we know, never the “ thing in itself.” 

This signifies that the self as a knower must or¬ 
ganize itself into some abiding system of knowings. 
This organized System of activities in knowing we call 
the mind. The mind is a phase of the self conceived 
as a knower. The mind, therefore, is the nexus , the 
bridge, through which the external world of matter 
and person acts upon the self, and the self reacts upon 
the world. The world occasions reactions of the self 
in mind. The self knows the world by the activities of 
itself in the knowing mind. The validity and integ¬ 
rity of mind demand the entire actuality of the self 
using mind and of a world occasioning mental activi¬ 
ties in knowing. But the knowing, as we have seen, 
is only of the activities affecting the self, and we must 
conclude that the realities called matter and spirit — 
so far as we know them — are in fact the actual oc¬ 
casions of the various actions upon us. In the broad¬ 
est sense, this means the actuality of whatever we dis¬ 
cover to exist — the activities themselves: the phe¬ 
nomena. We know the phenomena of matter and we 
know the phenomena of spirit. 

Statement Four. Having the phenomena as objects 
of knowing, we are driven by the nature of the self 
to assert that they actually represent either one actor 


80 


Creative Personality 


or two actors. The activities constituting the physi¬ 
cal world, and those constituting the psychic world, 
can not cause and support themselves; they signify to 
thought each an actor-agent. The agent may be one 
or it may be two, but the necessary conclusion of self 
in mind gives the self this definite meaning: Reality 
manifesting the phenomena. 

Always, then, is the self confronted by the phe¬ 
nomena of what we call matter and the phenomena 
of what we call spirit. In so far as this discussion has 
now gone, the realities in the phenomena may be 
equally fundamental. If this should turn out to be 
true, our quest would be at an end. It is necessary to 
determine, therefore, whether or not such a result is by 
any possibility a true finale of the whole matter. 

The Seventh Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: In the study of reality, we can pause only 
with that which appears to be Ultimate, and, in our 
judgment on two or more apparently Ultimate Real¬ 
ities, we are compelled to exclude as Ultimate that 
which is less than Infinite. 

Discussed: It would now seem to be axiomatic 
that every effect must have a cause, every action or 
activity is an effect, no activity or group or system of 
activities (less than infinite) can cause or support itself. 
The cause and support of activities are one and the 
same in any case, since a cause must continue in the 
effect, and thus support the effect. A group of ac¬ 
tivities, helpless to become or continue by any inherent 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 81 

power, can attain to a system only through some prin¬ 
ciple — some factor determining the group to be a 
system. The principle might serve as the support of 
the activities as a system were it not for the fact that 
the principle — the determining factor — is also an ef¬ 
fect, demands some origin. Having, then, the phe¬ 
nomena of any kind, the nature of mind seeks to refer 
them to some existence containing within itself the 
principle which organizes them into systems. The 
principle is not a phase of the phenomena, for it is their 
determination. This factor must be sought beyond 
the system in the cause of the activities making the 
system. For reasons of this character we instinctively 
speak of the phenomena of matter and the phenomena 
of spirit, including the self. 

So far as our common observation goes, matter and 
spirit seem equally actual and equally abiding. Sci¬ 
ence, however, extends its researches backward to a 
time when our present world contained apparently no 
spirit; there was no human self on the earth. Matter 
alone now puts forth activities. Matter is the primal 
actuality; spirit — the human self — is a secondary de¬ 
velopment. And, so far as the sense-organs give us 
any information on the subject, matter is inde¬ 
structible, so that it is reasoned that what is indestructi¬ 
ble can have no beginning, matter seems to be eternal, 
and therefore the cause and support of all existences 
known to man. Passing the fact that mind finds no 
necessary contradiction in the idea of an indestructible 
existence having a beginning, we proceed to apply our 
seventh canon of knowing to the consideration of the 


82 


Creative Personality 


main subject — the ultimate analysis of matter and of 
spirit, in certain definite propositions, as follows: 

Proposition One. Matter, as we now know it, is not 
indestructible. A suggestion of this fact appears in the 
gradual disintegration of all inorganic substances and 
decay of all living structures. 

A further suggestion of the fact appears in the 
knowledge that any solid of matter may be reduced to 
a liquid, and that any liquid may be raised to a gas. 

A further suggestion of the fact appears in the 
knowledge that were any gas so diffused throughout 
space that its particles would have the free range of 
the planets and nebulae of the present Universe, the 
particles would then retain only mass and gravity. 
All other so-called qualities of matter would then have 
disappeared. Nearly all the qualities of matter are 
products of conditions rather than of its essential na¬ 
ture. 

A further suggestion of the fact is the knowledge 
that matter is composed of compounds which may be 
reduced to elements. The elements are atoms. But 
the elements themselves, such as gold, silver, lead, 
sodium, etc., etc., are not ultimates, as formerly sup¬ 
posed. Every atom of matter is a system of electrons. 
The electrons appear to be the workers, carriers and 
builders of the entire sidereal Universe, and all it con¬ 
tains. Electrons are positive and negative. Nega¬ 
tive electrons repel each other with great force when 
near together, and they can not be forced into con¬ 
tact. If they could, then a row of them one inch 
long would contain twelve trillion, seven hundred 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 83 

billion, and one cubic inch, this number cubed. 
Quiescent electrons can not be called matter, nor can 
matter appear in space until electrons revolve around 
each other with immense velocity. What phase of 
matter commonly called element shall be formed, de¬ 
pends upon the number of electrons, their set specific 
speed of revolution around a centre, their distances 
from this centre, and, last, but not least, their direc¬ 
tion of revolution. These four factors, it is claimed, 
decide what atom shall be formed. 

At this precise point we pause to say, with em¬ 
phasis: If The Electrons Repel Each Other with 
Great Force And Can Not Be Brought Into Contact , 
Yet Are Brought Into The Systems Called The Ele¬ 
ments, The Systems Are The Result Of Some Force 
External To The Electrons. The systems demand 
some cause and support other than the nature of the 
electrons themselves. 

The electrons are negative and positive, and are 
phases of electricity, which is an action of the ether 
within itself. The electrons that mutually repel one 
another are negative, and the positive electrons seem 
to have the function of holding the negative electrons 
together in the systems, that is, in the elements — 
within limits depending upon the number of the nega¬ 
tive electrons as compared to the number of the posi¬ 
tive electrons. 

Science affirms the statement that the negative elec¬ 
trons, repelling each other with great force and yet 
bound in the systems called the atoms of the elements, 
are brought into such systems by some actuality other 


84 


Creative Personality 


than themselves. Matter differs as its atoms differ, 
and the atoms differ according to their atomic weight 
and the number of electrons contained in excess of 
negative over positive electrons. The more active ele¬ 
ments or atoms contain such an excess of negative 
electrons, the more stable are in a state of equilibrium, 
greater or less, of the negative and positive. The posi¬ 
tive electrons constitute the controlling factor — that 
which makes an atom possible. If the negative should 
gain control over the positive, the atoms would go to 
pieces. Thus, Radium continues to disintegrate until 
the negative excess reaches a point at which the posi¬ 
tive resume control. The Radium atom disintegrates, 
with one result, for example, the appearance of Helium 
— totally unlike Radium. In this way the degradation 
of the chemical elements seems to be going on. 

We thus make out an etheric system of activities, 
composed of what are called negative and positive 
electrons — electricity — that is, activities that are 
phenomenally negative and mutually repellent, and ac¬ 
tivities that are phenomenally positive, acting as con¬ 
trols of the negative, the result of the control being 
the atom. The etheric system of activities demands 
some cause arid support, as in every other instance, un¬ 
less the ether should turn out to be qualitatively in¬ 
finite. 

It is impossible to get matter or the atoms out of 
the ether by the action of the negative electrons, since 
these repel each other “ with great force.” It is im¬ 
possible to get the atoms out of the ether by the action 
of the positive electrons alone, since, without the 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 85 

negative, there is nothing to bind into the systems of 
the atoms. If the ether is eternal and qualitatively 
infinite, it is then not the same throughout and identi¬ 
cal with itself, for the negative electrons are not the 
positive, and vice versa. Moreover, as a consequence, 
the ether is thus a double eternal and a double infinite. 
But there can be one Infinite only in any true sense. 
The positive ether can not claim infinity with the nega¬ 
tive ether. One or the other must, in our thought, be 
eliminated as an infinite. The moment either disap¬ 
pears as an Infinite and Eternal existence, that mo¬ 
ment the atom — matter — disappears. The infinite 
negative ether is repellent of itself. The infinite posi¬ 
tive ether has nothing to systematize. The two con¬ 
ditions of the ether demand some unifying ground and 
source other than itself, so far as we now know. 

And the fact that the positive electrons control the 
negative, so that the two constitute the atoms, should 
not be regarded as final until we know what it is that 
gets the two etheric conditions or actions together. 
Once any system is constituted, we can analyze its 
elements and explain the fact of its being a system. 
But no system less than qualitatively infinite can ex¬ 
plain its own origin. Taking the atomic systems for 
granted, we do not know what makes the positive elec¬ 
tron the controlling factor; we do not know the origin 
of the positive electron; we do not know the origin 
of either kind of electron. 

If, now, we say that the factors sought are all simply 
of the nature of the ether, and so, affirm that the ether 
is eternal and qualitatively infinite,— adequate to all 


86 


Creative Personality 


things, comprehensive of all things,— we are then 
compelled to put into it every actuality in the Universe. 
This includes the psychic factor, and the psychic factor 
is intelligence, evolving the vast results of the Uni¬ 
verse in personal aspects. This is quite a different con¬ 
ception from the notion that matter, as it now exists, 
is an ultimate. 

Proposition Two. Matter is not the primary ex¬ 
istence. If we in our thought reduce matter to ether, 
and if we assume that the total ether acts in vast cycles 
from itself to matter and from matter back to itself,— 
winding and running down forever,— it still remains 
a mighty actuality of two-fold activities — those con¬ 
stituting itself and those manifest in the coming and 
going of the Universe. The nature of the ether and 
the nature of the activities constituting it a system 
also demand a cause and support. Every action, and 
hence, every system of actions, demands an actor — 
unless the system be infinite. Because of this neces¬ 
sity of mind, from which we can not escape with the 
most desperate efforts, we are driven to assume, either 
some Infinite Reality for explanation of existences, 
or to assume that the ether itself is that Infinite. 
When we do this latter, we insert in the ether every 
quality and attribute demanded by the mind, and call 
the result of such insertion, Ether — or, Matter. The 
conclusion is merely verbal, and ostensibly gets rid of 
all save ether, while in fact making ether mean an 
adequate and comprehensive infinite cause and sup¬ 
port. This is more than the facts warrant. There 
is no evidence that the ether is ultimate, since there 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 87 

is no evidence that the ether is infinite in any true 
sense. 

The cause and support of all systems of existence 
must not only be eternal, it must also be infinite, and 
not only infinite in a quantitative sense, but in a qualita¬ 
tive sense. A mere quantitative infinite is an inert 
thing. The ether may be so truly infinite in quantity 
that any point in its existence is a centre, but this con¬ 
ception puts nothing into the ether save inertia. Such 
an infinite can be qualitatively nothing. If this is the 
sole existence, nothing can be done to or with the 
ether. When we make the ether capable of doing any¬ 
thing, we begin to give it qualitative existence. If we 
assume the ether to have infinite qualitative being, 
we employ elements of thought that signify something 
more than mere ether. Just as the word, chemism, 
means nothing more than certain observed facts of 
science, and needs itself an explanation, so the words 
Infinite Ether denote merely the facts ascertained by 
science plus assumptions of additional factors not re¬ 
vealed by science. They do not belong in the ether 
until put there by our thought, and our thought in that 
case is not legitimate unless we can find a logical way 
of getting them in. There is nothing in science, the 
discoverer of the ether, which indicates that the ether 
or that matter is eternal and qualitatively infinite. 
Neither are ultimates. They are not Primary Exist¬ 
ences. 

Proposition Three . Matter is not a superior ex¬ 
istence. To science the material Universe is a closed 
system. It contains a sum-total of matter and a sum- 


88 


Creative Personality 


total of energy. Every kind of force is convertible 
into any other kind. The system is a machine. Its ac¬ 
tivities are all mechanical. The machine is a vast 
complex of mere interactions. There is here not a 
sign of initiative. A mind sufficiently great could 
place every electron and foretell every event. A reign 
of law now confronts us which is unyielding, un¬ 
changeable, invincible, blind. Here is an “ eyeless 
Samson grinding forever at his iron mill of cause and 
effect.” There is no initiative, no variation. The 
Universe material is free to be precisely what it is at 
any moment of its history — absolutely no more, no 
less. 

Matter, as we know it, has disappeared into a mode 
of motion of a non-material existence within itself. 

A further suggestion of the destructibility of matter 
is the theory, now becoming knowledge, that the ele¬ 
ments themselves are now undergoing a process of dis¬ 
integration. They are no longer regarded as neces¬ 
sarily permanent. Uranium disintegrates by a long 
series into Radium, and this in turn reduces to Helium. 
Possibly Lead may be the final result of such a proc¬ 
ess. In planetary space the elements are now forming, 
and on the earth they seem to be passing on toward an 
opposite state. If the ether is cause and support of 
the elements, and if the latter are both forming and 
disintegrating before the eyes of science, we infer that 
from the ether they come and to the ether must they 

go- 

The actuality called matter, then, is a system of 
phenomena having origin and support in the universal 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 89 

ether. But the activities of the ether also constitute 
a system which demands some determining principle, 
cause and support in actuality other than itself. 
Every system of activities demands this reference, and 
the ether is no exception. This reference will intro¬ 
duce us to the endless chain of cause and effect which 
we can only obviate by assuming some ultimate that 
is to our thought adequate and comprehensive, thus 
satisfying the nature of mind. This Ultimate Cause 
must be all cause and no effect. Seeking that Ultimate, 
we go on to our next proposition. 

Proposition Four. Psychic factor dominates both 
matter and ether, and is therefore the superior exist¬ 
ence. Comparing these systems of activities, we ob¬ 
serve : 

Each system, so far as we know it, is a complex of 
phenomena. In neither case do we know the “ thing 
in itself/’ except by the necessary inference that every 
activity or phenomenon, and so, every system of phe¬ 
nomenal activities, demands for thought, an actor- 
agent that is adequate to and comprehensive of, the 
system. 

Psychic factor, taken in its broadest sense, involves 
intelligence and the power of initiative. 

Psychic factor appears in its universal evidences, 
such as evolution and in its individualization in the 
animal world. 

The evidences of psychic factor in evolution would 
prove the Universe to be a closed and bound machine, 
incapable of demonstrating origin or true initiative, 
were it not for the fact that evolution climaxes in 


90 


Creative Personality 


the human self. The human self is individual and 
capable of initiative. 

The human self, as individualized, presents phe¬ 
nomena of a totally different character from those of 
the material and etheric world. These phenomena it 
classes as psychic, and holds itself to be their cause and 
support. 

The psychic factor, taken in both an universal sense 
and the individual human sense, asserts its superiority 
in the following way: 

The human self asserts its superiority in its con¬ 
sciousness of being psychic as well as physically per¬ 
sonified. Whenever theorists assert the contrary in 
argument, they employ the whole category of psychic 
elements in doing so, and assert by the fact of thus 
contending the superior nature of the self. To seek 
to explain away this superiority is to admit it at the 
start. 

The human self asserts its superiority in its domina¬ 
tion over matter, ether and life. 

It dominates matter by the innumerable ways in 
which it utilizes, shapes, combines and consumes mat¬ 
ter. 

It dominates matter by harnessing its forces in spite 
of matter’s obstinately mechanical operations. 

It dominates matter by unlocking its secrets, explor¬ 
ing its nature, investigating its living forms and re¬ 
ducing it to chemical compounds, elements, molecules, 
atoms, electrons. 

It dominates the ether itself by isolating the elec¬ 
trons, utilizing electricity in the most astounding in- 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 91 

ventions and compelling magnetism to cooperate with 
electricity for its own purposes. 

If it is yet unable to control the titanic forces of 
nature, so that occasionally the human seems like an 
autumn leaf in some rioting wind, it asserts its su¬ 
periority even in the moment of disaster by the grim 
steadfastness of courage and the lofty serenity of 
heroism. It is cold fact that the persistent invinci¬ 
bility of man has made him master through all the 
dreadfulness of the ages. And not the least element 
in this power has been his faith — the belief against 
all odds — that the human self is capable of meeting 
all demands made upon it. 

If death appears to be inevitable, the self, by its 
spirit, by its science and by its utilities, prolongs life, 
decreases mortality, advances longevity, and prophesies 
even to-day the final evacuation by death of its strong¬ 
hold, the earth. 

The human self demonstrates its superiority by pre¬ 
cisely the fact that it constitutes the climax of evolu¬ 
tion. A climax is at least a relative completion of 
forces and tendencies. The human is such a relative 
completion, so far as concerns physical evolution. 
But this physical evolution ceased, in its main outlines, 
long ago. The present and future evolution of man 
proceeds along purely psychic lines. This also evinces 
the superiority of the self, since it passes the goal of 
matter (the human body and brain) and makes further 
advance a result of psychic action. 

Proposition Five. The human self is an evolution 
through matter of some actuality inherent in matter. 


92 


Creative Personality 


Matter is an actuality out of which the self has evolved. 
The human psychic factor, 'therefore, was originally 
provided in the nature of matter. 

In what sense this statement is true may be indicated 
by the following bit of science. 

Helium is one product of the disintegration of Ra¬ 
dium. Helium and Radium are not alike as chemical 
elements, the one having an atomic weight of four, 
while the atomic weight of the other is 257.8 — the 
atomic weight of elements indicating differences in 
their functions. Nevertheless, Helium “ comes out 
of ” Radium. Of course, Radium does not contain 
Helium as such. The nature of Radium provides for 
Helium under given conditions. 

It is evident that the nature of the ether provides 
for positive and negative electrons under certain con¬ 
ditions. It is evident that the nature of the negative 
and positive electrons provides for the eighty or more 
elemental atoms, that the nature of the atoms provides 
for chemical compounds, and that the nature of the 
latter provides for living organisms. In this sense, 
every form of life is “ contained in the ether.” 

Our knowledge to-day admits no other origin for 
life. Life is not an outside entity injected somewhere 
into the system of matter. As matter is primarily 
provided in the ether, so is life primarily provided in 
matter. When the right conditions obtain, matter and 
life obtain. 

But, it is to be observed, this does not identify the 
nature of life with the nature of matter, precisely as 
the derivation of Helium does not identify it with 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 93 

Radium. Physical life is a product of material evolu¬ 
tion, but physical life is not matter. Physical life is a 
product of chemical activities, but chemical activities 
do not constitute physical life. Life has simply 
evolved out of material conditions. When these ob¬ 
tained, it appeared, because the nature of matter thus 
provided. 

Similarly with reference to psychic factor. We ob¬ 
serve here: Psychic factor is never individualized ex¬ 
cept in association with life as life is never individual¬ 
ized except in association with matter, so far as we 
know. When right conditions occur in matter, life 
appears, and invariably. When right conditions occur 
in living matter, individualized psychic factor emerges, 
and invariably. 

Similarly with reference to the human psychic factor. 
When right conditions obtain in animal life, the psychic 
factor individualizes as the self of man, and invariably. 

Life, psychic factor in animal life, and the human 
self never appear in any other manner nor from any 
other antecedents. 

The human self, therefore, is a provision of the veryi 
nature of matter. To say, however, that the two ac- I 
tualities are one thing, is to say that Radium and 
Helium are one kind of matter. 

The progressive outline of these facts is this: First, 
so far as science knows, appears the universal ether. 
Then, out of ether emerges matter. Thirdly, out of 
matter appears physical life. Fourthly, out of physical 
life emerges the animal life and psychic factor. 
Finally, out of animal life appears the human self. 


94 


Creative Personality 


Proposition Six. The human is not, as such, an 
ultimate in our analysis of existence. The human self 
is a system of activities demanding cause and support 
as truly as mind demands a supporting self on the one 
hand, and as truly as matter must be referred to ether 
and the ether to some further ultimate. We can not 
refer the self to the ether as its cause and support for 
the reason that this also requires a similar reference, 
and for the additional reason affirmed in our final 
Canon. 


The Eighth Canon of Knowing. 

Stated: In our determination of the kind of ac¬ 
tuality which, for our thought, is ultimate and infinite, 
we are compelled to conceive it in terms of the ultimate 
elements of our own nature. 

Discussed: These elements are not physical — 
they are psychic. Physically speaking, man is a 
chemical compound, consisting of masses of elemen¬ 
tal atoms, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, 
sodium, chlorine, calcium, fluorine, silica, iron, mag¬ 
nesium, potassium, phosphorus. The superiority of 
man does not consist in the fact that his body is thus 
of a peculiar chemical constitution. 

The ultimate elements in the human self are not or¬ 
ganic — they are intelligent. The physical human 
body is superior to that of the lower animals in the 
complexity of its sense-organs and the size and struc¬ 
ture of its brain and nervous systems, but these fac¬ 
tors are the result of a superior evolution of psychic 
factor, and demand an actuating and employing in- 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 95 

dividuality exceeding anything and everything below 
man. 

The ultimate elements of the human self are not the 
attributes of intelligence alone — they are the com¬ 
posite of initiative intelligence actuated by ethical mo¬ 
tives. In whatever respect man climaxes the evo¬ 
lution of every other animal, in such we discover 
his noblest being. Consciousness, self-consciousness, 
mental powers, especially an initiative will, and capacity 
for unlimited development within his class, mark his 
nature and indicate the direction of his growth. He 
is an evolution of matter, but his experience gives mat¬ 
ter a significance that is greater than matter in its 
purely physical aspects can afford. 

Now, there is nothing in the human self which is 
not provided for somewhere in the various stages of 
evolutionary process from which it has emerged: 
The human self must be provided for in animal life 
and its psychic elements. These must be provided for 
in the nature of matter, and the latter in the nature 
of the ether. 

But the human self, animal life, matter, ether, are 
each and all systems of activities demanding for 
thought some unifying ground other than itself. 
None of these systems is eternal and qualitatively in¬ 
finite, save, perhaps the ether — and can not be taken 
as ultimate. If the ether meets the necessities of the 
case, then it “ contains ” or provides for every system 
in our series from matter to the human self. It 
“ contains ” and provides for psychic factor and the 
whole content of the human self. This conception 


96 


Creative Personality 


makes it the Fundamental Reality. But the ether acts 
like a system of differing elements — as in the posi¬ 
tive and negative electrons. It is therefore not the 
same throughout and identical with itself. The ether 
also acts like an intermediary, since its electrons make 
for matter and are effects of some unknown cause. 
When we ask: What initiates the electrons? no one 
replies, of course, but the question suggests a possible 
prior or outside force, and nothing requiring initiation 
from without can be infinite in any sense. The ques¬ 
tion: What initiates the positive electrons and gives 
them power to coerce the negative into atomic sys¬ 
tems? has the same significance. The ether does not 
end our quest. 

We therefore posit in all existence less than in¬ 
finite a Reality which is eternal, qualitatively infinite, 
always the same throughout and identical with itself, 
and containing within itself the Sole Reason for its 
own being. This Reality fulfils our seventh and 
eighth canons: becomes our Ultimate because it is 
infinite, and must be interpreted or conceived in terms 
of the highest elements of the human self. 

This Reality manifests eternally and infinitely in 
what man calls Deity. Deity is the Fundamental 
Reality individualized by its own nature. Deity is the 
organized Psychic Factor of Infinite Reality. 

The Fundamental Reality manifests its nature in the 
two extreme phases,— matter and the human psychic 
individual,— employing, as its intermediaries, animal 
life and intelligence. 

The system of matter and the system of the human 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 97 

self are therefore equally real, each in its own way 
and right and for its own way and right and for its 
own ends. 

The Fundamental Reality appears intimately and 
immediately in the nature of matter. The Reality ap¬ 
pears intimately and immediately, therefore, in the 
human body and the human self. In basic nature, the 
human self is not dual: it is one. The Fundamental 
Reality is the unifying ground and constitutes the Na¬ 
ture of all being of any description whatever. It does 
not constitute the nature of so-called “ evil, ,, for evil 
is relative and temporary, and is an act, which act is 
a perversion of freedom necessarily possible in any 
free development. 

Since, however, we trace the highest in the self to 
the Infinite Reality, and since this highest is non¬ 
material, is spiritual (as we say), is known to us 
through mental activities, we define the Reality in 
terms of the non-material. Whatever constitutes the 
best of the human must have issued from the Funda¬ 
mental Reality. We give the latter character by this, 
fact. We individualize it as Deity. But Deity is an 
organization of the Psychic Elements of Fundamental 
Reality. The latter is not all personal, we may say, 
in the sense that the ether and matter are not all per¬ 
sonal. Person is organization of certain elements into 
a system of activities. In the human person the 
psychic factor is the unifying ground and cause, and 
Reality is the unifying ground and source of this. 
In the Deity, the Fundamental Reality is that unify¬ 
ing Ground and Source. The real cause of the hu- 


98 


Creative Personality 


man self, is not Deity; it is the Fundamental Reality. 
In Deity, the real cause is the same Reality. The 
Reality requires no cause or ground other than itself, 
because it is eternal and qualitatively infinite. The 
Ground of the Universe is Reality; its moral con¬ 
troller is an Infinite Personal System, necessitated by 
the nature of Reality. The ground of the human self 
is this same Reality; the controller is the organized 
human person. 

Matter is a medium through which Reality exhibits 
in the human person. Deity is the Medium through 
which moral control of the Universe realizes the Na¬ 
ture of Reality. In the human career, the self mani¬ 
fests the Reality, and the self is the controller of the 
person, the medium consisting* of body and mind, 
through which the self effects such control. 

We conclude, then, for the total actuality of the 
physical body, the psychic self and the mental system 
of activities. 

Matter and Spirit Extremes of One Reality. 

Matter and spirit are the extreme opposite phases 
of one Fundamental Reality. The human self, mak¬ 
ing its own nature and matter objects of thought, con¬ 
fronts these extremes, and defines the Universe ac¬ 
cording to the nature of either the one or the other of 
these extremes. If we are facing the “ grosser ” 
manifest, all is matter, and the self disappears in 
chemical activities. If we are facing the opposite ex¬ 
treme, all is spirit, and matter disappears in a system 
of pure Reality or Being. If we grasp the conception 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 99 

of the present chapter, we embrace each extreme, with 
the various intermediaries, ether, matter, life psychic 
factor, as phases of one Fundamental Reality, mani¬ 
festing in each phase as a medium for the succeeding 
until the human self appears, making the body and 
mind the further mediums by which it acquires knowl¬ 
edge of the Universe in which we live. A series of 
words will indicate the fact of our knowing: Self- 
Mind-Life-Matter-Ether-Reality. Reverse the series, 
and we indicate our derivation: Reality-Ether-Mat¬ 
ter-Life-Psychic Factor-Self-Mind. 

Practical Regimes. 

The discussions of this chapter suggest certain 
practical regimes which will give our thought actual 
application to everyday life. These regimes will prove 
of value to you, whatever may be your education or 
lack of education. You are invited not to regard them 
as valueless on the ground that your education makes 
them needless, because they will infallibly develop 
within you a larger and finer consciousness, and make 
your life by so much the more efficient. 

The regimes may appear to involve commonplace 
ideas, but this appearance, as in many other cases, will 
vanish as you carry out the work suggested. We miss 
much of the meaning of common words because we 
fail to use them in their fullest application. Take 
almost any ordinary word and investigate its dictionary 
meanings and origins: you will find that the word 
covers many meanings of which you are ignorant, and 
that its larger use would add to the fullness and rich- 


100 


Creative Personality 


ness of your personal consciousness. Thus with the 
subjects of the regimes that follow. 

First Regime.— Of Individual Realness. You are 
invited to assert for long, “ I am an actual manifest 
of Infinite Reality.” This fact gives you a standing 
and an importance which can not be overestimated. 
You are not only what you suppose yourself to be, 
an actual existence, but are also a phase of that which 
adorns the lily, exhibits in Plato, and swings into their 
orbits Orion and the Pleiades. Always you have 
known that you were yourself; now it is time that 
that self is an integral life in the vastness of worlds. 

Second Regime.— Of Oneness With the Universal 
Psychic Factor. The Universal Psychic Factor is, of 
course, merely the sum-total of individual psychic 
factors which Reality manifests through the whole 
history of the Universe, but each individual psychic 
factor is of precisely the same essence as nature with 
every other. You are now invited to think of psychic 
factor in the long general line of its exhibitions, from 
amoeba to man and beyond to archangels and beyond 
to Deity, and then to fill your consciousness with the 
truth, as the pictured wine glass of the Tyrolese is 
filled with wine,—“ No intelligence among worlds 
transcends in nature that psychic factor which makes 
me a living Will.” 

Third Regime.— Of Organized Person. You are 
person. You are as truly person as Adam, the angel 
Gabriel, or the Almighty. In the next chapter we 
shall see that person is an organization of Reality out 
of itself by means of which Reality comes to con- 


Realty of the Human Self and of Worlds 101 

sciousness, contemplates itself and unfolds its possi¬ 
bilities of intelligence and will. You see, then, that 
you are an organization of Reality in psychic factor 
developed in mind and body, and that you thus repre¬ 
sent one of the highest possible stages in the on-going 
of Reality toward a perfect Universe. So you are a 
goal, a triumph, and an instrument, and, as person, 
you are indispensable to all life, if only you continue 
to hold yourself up to the standard, an Integral Person- 
Fact of the whole Universe. 

Fourth Regime.— Of Superiority Over Material 
Worlds. You are invited to cultivate a sense of lord- 
ship over material things. Do not permit things to 
master you. Master things. You are the superior 
existence. Do not permit Nature to overwhelm you, 
whether by its forces, its storms, its stubbornness, its 
vastness, or that great Fool Death. The world is as 
actual as are you, but its reality is, always has been, 
and ever shall be, Arena for You, and nothing but 
Arena for you. Were it not for you (all persons), 
the Universe would not exist at all. Hold high the 
spirit of Invincibility as Superior Manifest of Reality, 
and, through all disease and even in the articles of 
death insist upon your lordship. 

Fifth Regime.— Of the Actuality of Worlds. The 
actuality of the self implies the actuality of a Universe, 
since only through reaction with some kind of environ¬ 
ment can psychic factor express in the self. We now 
know that our environment is composed of what we 
call material and what we call spiritual existences 
which are alike actual manifestations of the Funda- 


102 


Creative Personality 


mental Reality. It is the belief of common sense that 
each of these manifestations is a fact, and to common 
sense it would seem that any discussion of the matter 
is “ much ado about nothing.” But there are those 
who hold that matter is an “ error of mortal mind,” 
and this fantastic notion we wish to avoid in these 
studies. You are therefore invited to emphasize in 
your consciousness the reality of the Universe in which 
you live, because the consciousness of such reality 
maintains your common sense, and is necessary to the 
largest, fullest, and richest reaction of all your powers, 
and thus to the largest, fullest, and richest personal 
life. You are also invited to cultivate the feeling that 
the vastness of external Reality only assures to you 
the corresponding greatness of your self as Reality. 
The idea here suggested may be expressed as follows, 
“ I live in the midst of Environment absolutely real 
and adequate to the completest unfoldment of all the 
possibilities of my nature — and adequate forever.” 

Sixth Regime.— Of the Relation of the Self to 
Worlds. The Fundamental Reality is here conceived 
as the Universal Ground which binds you, so to speak, 
to the Universe and all its contents. You have come 
to personality as a manifestation of Reality and 
through reaction with its manifestations in worlds. 
The Universe is, therefore, your Arena. You belong 
here. You are not an alien. You are invited to culti¬ 
vate this inspiring consciousness: “I am at home in 
this Universe. I shall always be at home therein, 
whether here or elsewhere, whether with men or with 
gods, whether in time or in ‘ eternity/ ” 


Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 103 

Your total life-history is and always will be One 
Whole. Remember, that matter has no power to divide 
that life-history. Stop and think that proposition out 
and get its meaning. As a matter of fact, you are 
always trying to compel matter to divide your visible 
life from an invisible world of hopes, dreams and 
ideals, placing that invisible world outside of you, 
somewhere and somehow in a spiritual realm, and any¬ 
where and anyhow save here and now in your body 
and in a present Universe. You are invited to avoid 
all this. Do not detach in your thought any part of 
your life-history from any other part, and especially 
do not build up a world of thought, hopes and aspira¬ 
tions conceived of as apart from yourself or your 
life. 

Death has no power to divide your life-history. The 
only death we know is that of material organisms, save 
that apparent human selves may fail to become true 
persons. Death in this sense would end life-history, 
and not divide it. Physical death affects bodies only, 
and your life-history is not interrupted by that event. 
Do not, therefore, live in what may be called a “ future- 
consciousness.” Most people do so live, and thus try 
to fence off a future from the present stage of exist¬ 
ence by erecting Death as a barrier which they must 
overpass in order to get from the now to the here¬ 
after. You are invited to put away all notions of 
there being any advantage in getting from a now to a 
hereafter, or in passing out of matter and time into 
eternity. There is no future, save as an idea. All 
manifestations of Reality march abreast in one stU” 


104 


Creative Personality 


pendous present life-history. You and Deity are con¬ 
temporaries. The Universe is One Whole, and it can 
not be split, either by matter, or by spirit, or by Death. 
Take your share in that Life-history, hold to the in¬ 
divisible oneness of your own life-history, and live it 
to-day for all it is worth, regardless of the invisible, 
of Death, and of any future. 


LAW — The Measure of Person 
is Itself, Not Its Activities. 


CHAPTER IV. 

PERSON. 

T HERE are some words that are familiar to all, 
but not easily defined. We are conscious, for 
example, of life, but we still await a definite 
statement of its nature. Such a word is the heading 
of this chapter. We ourselves are persons, and we 
are incessantly dealing with other persons. Never¬ 
theless, the writer has asked many minds to tell him 
what a person is, and has received about this answer, 
“ A person is — oh, any body.” Let us venture to 
analyze the word in the following way. 

A Definition of Person. 

Person is a System of Activities, or groups of 
Activities, organized by Reality out of its self into 
Individualized Consciousness and Self-directive In¬ 
telligence. This definition would seem to cover and to 
include all the essential factors of any type of person, 
finite and Infinite. Person can not be more, cannot be 
less. There may be other persons, finite, and yet not 
human, as, the hypothetical devils and so-called angels, 
but if so, they must fall under the definition here 
given. 


105 


106 


Creative Personality 


Analysis of the Definition. 

Person is a System of Activities, or Groups of 
Activities. A system of activities is any number of 
activities having some central or supreme work to 
which the activities are all related. For example, gov¬ 
ernment is carried on by individuals whose activities 
all make toward one end — a lawful conduct of public 
affairs. Or, a system of Logic is a treatise having for 
its one object, correct thinking. And a person-system, 
in the human sense, is one which tends to ultimate in 
individual development. 

Systems may be regarded as closed and open. The 
Infinite Reality may be regarded as a closed System, 
since there is no other existence, and it is, therefore, 
infinitely and eternally independent. The Universe 
may also be a closed system, if it is the total manifesta¬ 
tion of Reality. 

Our solar system might conceivably exist were there 
no other worlds, in which case it would be a closed 
system, a total expression of Reality so far forth. 
There is no reason to suppose that Reality may not 
manifest itself in any number of systems independent 
of each other for their existence. If our solar system 
is independent of other worlds, it also is a closed 
system. A closed system is one which does not depend 
for its existence and maintenance upon other than the 
Infinite Reality. 

An open system is one through which Reality inter¬ 
changes itself for its own completer manifestation. 
The earth is an open system depending upon its posi- 


Person 


107 


tion and relation among other planets. A plant or an 
animal is also dependent for existence and growth upon 
other objects in Nature, and, indeed, upon a whole 
world, since every object in Nature in some way af¬ 
fects other objects. A human person, therefore, is an 
open system of activities, and depends for existence, 
maintenance and development upon other manifesta¬ 
tions of Reality external to itself. 

The person-system is organized by Reality out of 
Reality. The organizing process, so to speak, does 
not separate person from Reality; it merely arranges 
the possibilities of Reality into a personal existence. 
Observe, that you and the Reality are not two different 
things; you are the Reality manifested; just as, the 
rose and matter are not two different things, since the 
rose is matter in a given form. 

The person is an organization of the activities of 
Reality into a system, which activities are not merely 
the original possibilities of Reality but are now the 
activities of person. 

This fact that the activities of Reality become those 
of person constitutes the system as individual. An 
individual is one sole existence. It is itself, and none 
other. Other existences may contribute to its main¬ 
tenance, but cannot share its identity. Thus, an elec¬ 
tron, atom, molecule, crystal, plant, an animal, a human 
being, are all individuals. You are a person, and you 
are an individual person. 

The human system of activities organized into indi¬ 
viduality cannot be person until it has the attribute of 
consciousness. That the individual is conscious means 


108 


Creative Personality 


that it has the marvelous power to know, that is, to 
give meaning to itself as a self, to its own activities as 
of its self and to other activities not of itself which it 
interprets as a Not-Self. When the individual system 
of Reality’s own activities becomes a conscious sys¬ 
tem, the Reality attains consciousness in itself. Every 
human, therefore, makes the nature of things con¬ 
scious, and contributes by so much to the universal 
unfoldment. This indicates in some small degree your 
marvelous importance to the sum-total of the Uni¬ 
versal Life. 

When the organizing processes above indicated are 
completed, the system becomes an individualized in¬ 
telligence. The Universal Reality “ contains ” the 
provision of intelligence. That is to say, it is the na¬ 
ture of Reality to attain to intelligence in living things 
and persons. The individual living objects of Nature 
realize intelligence for Reality. This gives us a hint 
of the reason or tendency of Reality’s unfoldment. 

In the world below man every living object mani¬ 
fests Reality’s provision for intelligence. This in¬ 
telligence is a phase of the universal realization of 
Reality’s power to attain intelligence. But this in¬ 
telligence has no perfectly individualized freedom. 
Before individualized freedom can be realized, Reality 
must pass from its lower forms into its personal forms 
— must transmute itself through lower forms into the 
higher. Thus, for example, we transmute food into 
body, and the elements of personal growth into grow¬ 
ing persons. So the Universal Reality, tending to 
express in intelligence, forever and ever tends to 


Person 


109 


transmute itself through its physical and spiritual 
manifestations into conscious self directive person. 

The difference between the intelligence of individual 
living objects below man and the intelligence embodied 
in man may be thus indicated: as a locomotive exhibits 
intelligence, but is not self-directive, so an atom, or a 
plant, reveals intelligence, but may not control their 
own activities. The locomotive and engineer are both 
machines acting intelligently, but the man has the 
power to direct his intelligence, while the locomotive 
must carry out his decisions. In Nature, without man 
Reality manifests what may be called instrumental, 
non-self-directive intelligence. In man, Reality’s pro¬ 
vision for intelligence attains to individualized self- 
direction. 

Our brief analysis thus unfolds our definition. In 
person Reality realizes the beginning of its highest ex¬ 
pression. But the very fact that freedom is here at¬ 
tained, and that it is individual freedom, necessarily 
makes person a variable existence. Reality does not 
exhaust all its possible kinds of activities in any one 
individual object, otherwise all objects might be one 
object, and would be one kind of object. The truth 
here suggested forms the basis of, and constitutes, dif¬ 
ferences among individual persons. 

Differences in Person. 

We know that human beings differ. No two per¬ 
sons are alike. While the main outlines of human 
nature are the same the world over, inconceivable 
variations occur in these outlines, so that there are 


110 


Creative Personality 


exactly as many kinds of person in the world as there 
are individual men and women. With about fourteen 
chemical elements and a definite number of chemical 
compounds in the human body, there are absolutely 
innumerable variations in the internal and external 
physical structure of man. With less than a dozen 
general kinds of mental activities or “ faculties/’ the 
variations in human mentality are inconceivably great. 
In order to indicate some sort of broad explanation of 
this fact, we may refer to three prime causes. 

Reality's Activities are the Prime Cause of Differ¬ 
ences in Person. As above intimated, not all the kinds 
of activities of Reality go into any one of its manifes¬ 
tations. Of course the Ground and Source of things 
“ contains ” within itself infinite possibilities, since 
itself isr qualitatively infinite. When we reflect upon 
the possible combination of a small number of differ¬ 
ent kinds of things, we discover that the combinations 
of infinite kinds of activities will be nothing short of 
infinite also. This little bit of metaphysics is simply 
a deduction from the actual facts observed in Nature. 
With something like eighty chemical elements, we have 
hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds, and 
myriads of individual objects, each of which is dis¬ 
tinct and differs from all others. It would be impos¬ 
sible to analyze a single human being into the different 
kinds of elements that compose him. And this is true 
notwithstanding the fact that every human being is, in 
an essential sense, totally different from every other 
human being. The prime cause of such marvelous 
differences among persons is the infinite possibilities 


Person 


111 


of differences in the activities of Reality which go into 
any kind of person. 

A Secondary Cause of Differences in Person. Per¬ 
son is necessarily self-directive. It is acted upon by 
innumerable forces of Nature and man, and ordinarily 
responds thereto more or less automatically, that is to 
say, according to the nature of person, but is also 
capable of arresting the automatic tendency of that 
nature, and substituting therefor the higher expres¬ 
sion of the nature of the person, to-wit, resistance to 
and control of such forces and initiation of its own 
activities for its own end. These elements of essen¬ 
tial freedom cause in man a possibility of variations in 
person which are inconceivable. The possible varia¬ 
tions are inconceivable for the very reason that the 
individual is incessantly acted upon by innumerable 
external forces, automatically reacts thereto, and so 
brings in an element of “ chance,” since an automatic 
reaction to innumerable differing forces must insure 
differences having the look of “ chance,” and for the 
reason that the individual does possess finally, or some¬ 
where, the power of initiation. By the power of initia¬ 
tion, or of the initiative, for example, person varies 
food, work, thought, etc., and produces changes both 
in body and in mind. 

A Third Cause of Differences in Person. Every 
person changes incessantly. This fact of change fol¬ 
lows continued variation in the activities that assail 
the individual from without, and the variation of its 
automatic or unthinking response to such activities. 
It also follows incessant variations in person’s volun- 


112 


Creative Personality 


tary responses to external activities. Imagine a cloud 
of insects swarming on a summer evening. The cloud 
is one, but its form and total arrangement change from 
moment to moment, because the individuals respond 
to outside influences automatically, as it were, and the 
outside activities never remain the same for an instant. 
If, now, we suppose each insect endowed with intelli¬ 
gence controlling itself by will, we see a further cause 
of change in each insect and in the cloud as a whole. 
The cloud may represent the activities that constitute 
any person, and it is evident that no person can fail 
to change more or less every day of his life. This 
factor of change is always introducing new elements of 
differences among persons. No one can stand still, 
but each one is forever changing in nature and charac¬ 
ter, and forever growing, “or the right way or the 
wrong way.” Through the body, the mind, the entire 
person, Reality transmutes itself and manifests in dif¬ 
fering ways during every instant of life, and will con¬ 
tinue to do so eternally. For person changes, but im¬ 
mortal person can never lose its identity. 

Why Reality Unfolds in Person. 

When we enter considerations like the preceding, 
we begin to wonder why, since Reality is all things and 
all things are Reality, the latter should “take the 
trouble,” so to speak, to manifest itself in individual 
objects and conscious persons. Since, as we have seen 
in our second chapter, Reality is always the same 
throughout and everywhere identical with itself, is 
eternal and qualitatively infinite, and “ contains ” 


Person 


113 


within itself the sole reason for its own existence, the 
question arises, Why should not Reality maintain its 
own undifferentiated being? This question may seem 
too great for answer, and may appear to have no prac¬ 
tical value. Nevertheless, we may venture to suggest 
one or two answers, as follows: 

We know that things and persons exist, and we 
necessarily infer that they must have some common 
Ground and Source. If we call the Ground and 
Source Reality, we know that the latter has, as a matter 
of fact, manifested in the things and persons. We 
conclude, then, that it is the nature of Reality to bring 
things and persons into existence. Our first answer, 
therefore, is that the organization of objects and con¬ 
scious individuals is of the nature of Reality itself. 

Since manifestation of its possibilities is a tendency 
of Reality, we are forced by our conscious intelligence 
to believe that the tendency must continue always to 
work out in the highest possible forms. For this earth 
these highest forms, we are driven to conclude, are 
human persons. Other still higher forms may appear 
under other conditions throughout the Universe. 

When we call to mind the phases of human develop¬ 
ment in nature and character, in knowledge and arts, 
in all the elements of civilization, we begin to see what 
this tendency or Reality to unfold itself means. Take 
the infant Shakespeare, and consider what this raw 
material of body and spirit may finally become. Thus, 
in a measure, with every other human being. The so 
largely undifferentiated stuff composing individual 
human nature, is brought up through the years into 


114 


Creative Personality 


more and more specialized and marvelous forms of 
development. Let us suppose one individual in this 
world to have exhausted in his development all the 
possibilities of an even century of life. Consider, now, 
the inconceivable difference between the infancy of 
this person and the maturity of the one hundredth 
year. Thus is suggested the ideal for all humans — 
to become all that they can become during life. 

Now, with our conception of Reality as “ contain¬ 
ing ” within itself a possibility of a limitless and end¬ 
less Universe of existence, we see that without un- 
foldments in specific and differing forms, Reality would 
forever remain idle and meaningless. Hence, we say 
that as the goal for an individual is development of 
limitless possibilities, so the goal of Reality is the 
infinite and eternal expression of its Nature in and 
through individualized things and persons. Stating 
the matter in another way, the ideal of the Universe 
must be to develop all, so to speak, its musical powers, 
all its powers of art in form and color and beauty, all 
its powers of self-knowledge, all its powers of mastery 
and ideal character as seen, for example, in a Christ — 
all its powers of absolute perfection as seen in an 
imagined God. 

It is evident, therefore, that Reality unfolds its pos¬ 
sibilities by making up into individuality, and by the 
development of individuality into higher, more special¬ 
ized, and fuller and richer forms. Thus, what may be 
called a Universal Consciousness arrives, and Reality 
comes to itself in and through myriads of personal 
individualities. This insures continuous existence of 


Person 


115 


every true personal individuality because, after per¬ 
sonality is attained, all further manifestations of 
Reality must consist in personal development. There 
can be for true man, then, no final sinking into Nirvana, 
no submergence of personality in Universal Conscious¬ 
ness, because the so-called “ Universal Consciousness ” 
can exist only in the consciousness of individual 
persons. 

Person changes, but true person can never die, that 
is, cease to exist as person. This means that whatever 
may occur in the career of the externals of person, as, 
in body, which may go to pieces, in mind, which may 
forget, pass into disharmony, reduce to faint and few 
activities, and so in consciousness, which may lose all 
memories of previous experiences, nevertheless, the 
“ core ” of person, the fundamental self, can never fail 
of maintaining an unbroken identity, because the nature 
of Reality has here found the beginning of its highest 
expression, and the tendency of Reality to realize that 
self in individuality must forever continue to work out 
the higher forms and completer and richer contents. 
Every true human person, therefore, is a contributor 
to the universal process of Reality’s unfoldment. 
Every human person should continue to be a contribu¬ 
tor to that process. If he seeks to live at his highest 
and best, his contribution will bring to him happiness, 
and will add to Reality’s sum-total realization of itself. 
If he lives “ wrongly,” he will bring to himself un¬ 
happiness, will rob himself of his own possibilities, 
and will retard the universal development. But he 
cannot prevent that development, and sooner or later 


116 


Creative Personality 


will be compelled to rue his own failures and unhappi¬ 
ness, to come into line with that process of unfoldment 
through which Reality ever seeks the harmonious ex¬ 
pression of itself. Thus we see that two main prod¬ 
ucts appear in the long history of universal life: 
Person and Individuality of Person. We briefly dis¬ 
cuss these matters through the Principles of Person 
and the Laws of Individuality. 

Principles o? Person. 

These principles we deduce from previous considera¬ 
tion. Reviewing the latter, we make out the principles 
as follows: 

First Principle of Person. Person is a composite of 
manifested Reality. One said of the Christ that he 
was “ God manifest in the flesh.” Jesus was thus a 
self and a body, and was declared to be a God so 
manifested. So we may say, any human person is a 
self and a body, and is Reality manifested in both. 
Let us analyze this suggestion. 

Person is some kind of body, whether of matter, or 
ether, or whatnot. Body is a complex of activities. 
The material body is a complex of activities of certain 
forms of matter. The matter is a complex of activi¬ 
ties of molecules, atoms, electrons, the ether. And 
reason analyzes the ether into activities of a something 
which we here call the Fundamental Reality. 

Person is some kind of mind. Mind is a complex 
of activities in knowing. These activities, having dif¬ 
fering names, are all really one thing, a knowing proc¬ 
ess. The knowing process relates the inner self to 


Person 


117 


external things, which include the body and the world. 
The knowing process also expresses and unfolds Real¬ 
ity as within the self. Mind, therefore, analyzes into 
a system of activities of reality in a self. 

Person is some kind of subconscious or pre-mental 
self. The self exists primarily in a subconscious state. 
This subconscious state consists of creative and know¬ 
ing activities through which Reality makes toward 
person. 

Person includes some kind of self. You are one 
kind of self, all other human beings are differing kinds 
of selves. Since every existence, except an infinite 
one, is a system of activities of a something other than 
the system, the human self is also a composite of activi¬ 
ties of such a something. This makes what we call the 
self, strictly speaking, the manifest of the Fundamental 
Reality. Our first principle of person, then, is that 
person is a system of groups of activities through 
which Reality manifests in differing ways, all of which 
are related to one end, the individualization of Reality. 

Second Principle of Person. Person exhibits Real¬ 
ity in such a way that, when once a primary self comes 
into being, the physical and the mental activities, sub¬ 
conscious and conscious, are expression of that self. 
We should remember that Reality and the self are one 
in fact, and that they are separable only as a matter of 
convenience in thought. In thought, then, we see that 
the self through all the mental and physical activities 
exhibits Reality. It draws Reality up into itself, as 
it were, and uses Reality in developing the elements 
of person. This idea, which is the practical fact, that 


118 


Creative Personality 


we use Reality in creating our own person, is our 
second principle,— Reality is the servant of Person. 

Third Principle of Person. Our third principle 
makes the self the master of Reality. This also is the 
nature of things. A self is necessarily the controller 
of Reality in building and directing its own person. 
It can not escape this sovereignty. This inescapable 
fact is the basis of your control of your own growth 
and life. Always Reality is at your disposal. Al¬ 
ways may you draw on Reality for your inner life, 
for your external reactions to the world about you, 
and for your personal development. In truth, your 
wealth, growth and power as a person are exactly 
measured by the degree of your mastership over the 
Universal Reality. 

Fourth Principle of Person. The mastery of Real¬ 
ity gives person individuality. This proposition is 
everywhere evident. We ourselves determine our 
physical character. Our minds are what they are, as 
minds and as individual minds, according to our own 
thought-life. In other words, our physical and mental 
person is not a matter of chance, but is what we make 
it. Thus each one controls Reality in developing his 
own individuality. But this general control merely 
yields the commonplace differences observed among 
all people. Individuality has a more definite and a 
more valuable meaning. It means allround develop¬ 
ment, full and rich development, greatly specialized 
development, and development on the highest levels of 
which person is capable. This, as already indicated, 
points out the goal of person in Reality and of Reality 


Person 


119 


in person: Completest consciousness of individual 
life-being. This brings us to our second great prod¬ 
uct in the history of life, as below. 

Individuality and its Laws. 

First Lazo of Individuality. Individuality may be 
defined as the sum-total of differences between one i 
person and another, or one person and all other persons. I 
The individuality is the person possessed of these dif¬ 
ferences. 

Individuality is ordinary and extraordinary. In the 
ordinary type we have merely the differences common 
among all people. In the fact that no two persons are 
alike we have that which constitutes a common indi¬ 
viduality of any person. By so much as differences 
among persons increase and become pronounced, by so 
much does individuality begin to exhibit in the extraor¬ 
dinary type. Thus, Shakespeare possessed a common' 
individuality which, apart from his genius, distin¬ 
guished him from every human being. But in his 
genius he rose .to the level of individuality unequalled 
in its kind. It is the first law of individuality, then, 
that its type rises as differences in person increase and 
become pronounced. Such differences may have the 
quality, good or bad, as we say. A dwarf, a giant, a 
Hercules, an Apollo, a Venus, exhibits a distinct type 
of ph ysical igrjjviduall y. Physical individuality may 
also consiTT^CrpTihlq^ fineness of “ texture,” or per¬ 
fection of function. Mental individual ity is seen in a 
Mephistopheles, Nero/Napoleon, Marcus Aurelius, or 
Blind Tom. In such cases the nature of things special- 




120 


Creative Personality 


izes in unique ways to a high degree. Reality obeys 
the suggestion of the personal self which it has organ¬ 
ized, and follows the law of cause and effect relent¬ 
lessly. This relentlessness produces the great “ evil ” 
mentalities of history, but it also produces the world’s 
benefactors. If universal harmony and happiness are 
alone preservative and constructive in the Universe, 
the normal tendency of the nature of things is toward 
the highest possible type of individuality which con¬ 
tributes, not to the destruction of a Universe, but to 
its preservation and unceasing construction. The law, 
as applied to you, means that you are to seek that 
individuality which assists in that great tendency. 

Second Law of Individuality. The Individuality of 
each person involves some central “ idea,” and this 
means a definite place and work in universal life. No 
human being is an accident, none is too common to be 
of specific value to the Universe. Persons differ, and 
possess at least ordinary individuality, in order that 
they may assist Reality to express its infinite possibili¬ 
ties. The second law states that individuality of that 
type which contributes toward the goal of universal 
harmony and happiness, whether the type be ordinary 
or extraordinary, is absolutely indispensable to this 
Universe. This gives you place, standing, and in¬ 
alienable rights. 

Third Law of Individuality. Individuality of a kind 
which merely shows negative differences in person may 
result simply from the mechanical working of the 
nature of things. Since man is more or less the con¬ 
troller of his own activities, such mechanically pro- 


Person 


121 


duced individuality may be here disregarded. Indi¬ 
viduality thus involves a measure of freedom. Our 
third law states that individuality becomes pronounced 
as person insists upon its power of self-direction. 
The law appears especially effective in the mental life 
when we consciously determine what our mind-world 
shall be. We by so much enhance our individuality. 
We now refuse to submit to a blind manifestation of 
Reality in and through us, but we compel it to serve us 
and thus transmute its mastership into our own. We 
carry this freedom into the choice of our food, the 
ways we live, the matters of enjoyment, the work we 
do, the mental “ faculties ” we especially employ, the 
fields of thought we investigate, the ideas we entertain, 
the principles and beliefs that we accept. By so much 
as we insist upon and use our powers of freedom, by 
so much do we leave the “ common herd ” and become 
individualized. 

Fourth Law of Individuality. Since individuality 
increases as person becomes conscious of freedom and 
insists upon its use, our fourth law states that freedom 
of the higher type develops with the growth of the 
spirit of independence. Independence involves self- 
reliance, courage and initiative. In self-reliance indi¬ 
viduality depends upon itself, “ stands upon its own 
feet.” Independent thought and action are free, and 
possess that feeling of confidence in their correctness, 
fulness and value which conscious freedom always de¬ 
velops. Self-reliant individuality has the courage of 
its own decisions and convictions. This type of per¬ 
son looks to itself for authority and approval. Since 


122 


Creative Personality 


it gives Reality full opportunity to unfold itself, it 
holds ideas that originate in the self to be true and 
valuable, approves its own opinions as they take shape 
in mind and feels that its decisions and judgments are 
laws for its own action. A high type of individuality 
leads public opinion, does not follow. Nothing so 
makes person common as the fear of what other people 
may say or think concerning one’s own life and con- 
/ ^-4uct. Thus, that individuality which is worth while 
f is always a free thinker and an initiator of new thought 
and new courses of human endeavor. It was the indi¬ 
viduality of Moses that made him the founder of the 
Jewish religion. In Socrates this spirit routed the 
Sophists of Greece and initiated a thought-movement 
which Plato and Aristotle, by virtue of their individu¬ 
ality, carried on to the domination of the world for 
centuries. You see the independence and initiative of 
individuality in every community, since everywhere 
there are men who do their own thinking, do not de¬ 
pend upon others for their own opinions, and give to 
life new ideas and things, and start new movements in 
all phases of action. In all this our Fundamental 
Reality asserts its own nature, insists upon itself, indi¬ 
vidualizes and makes actual its own possibilities more 
and more, and thus unfolds in universal progress. 

Thus we see that Reality, in its tendency to realize 
itself in person, seems ever to struggle toward a type 
of individuality which accentuates differences among 
human beings, develops in each some central controlling 
idea. Controlling trait, tendency or work, exhibits 
freedom of thought and action, and insists upon an 


Person 


123 


independence which initiates new forms of life and 
progress. 

Observe with emphasis this proposition: Whatever 
opposes this tendency of Reality is an enemy to man. 
Whether such opposition appears in common, every¬ 
day life, in invention, industry, art, science, politics 
and government, or religion, matters not one whit. 
Individuality which experience proves to be construc¬ 
tive of the common good expresses the normal tendency 
of Reality. The only test is the long-run outcome. 
The remedy for destructive individuality is not the 
destruction of the individuality itself, but the change 
of the directon of its manifestation. Whatever in 
human action or thought would reduce all varieties of 
person to a dead level, is a foe to man. Whatever, on 
the other hand, gives each person freedom to develop 
new thought, on new lines of activity, which tend to 
make human consciousness deeper, broader, richer and 
completer, is of priceless value, because it means the 
furtherance of Reality’s tendency toward the infinite 
unfoldment of universal individualized consciousness. 

Observe, again, and with emphasis, that within the 
limits of long-run welfare, every person must be con¬ 
ceded the right to experiment with his own life. If 
you read that sentence again, you will note that it 
confines the right of experiment to one’s own life. 
This does not involve the right to experiment with the 
lives of others. Individuality becomes destructive, or 
“ evil,” the instant it begins to experiment with other 
lives than its own. There is scarcely a human rela¬ 
tion in which this right to try out one’s own life is not 


124 


Creative Personality 


interfered with by the desires, or opinions, or conduct 
of some other mind. Everywhere we see this neces¬ 
sary tendency of person to get into individuality of 
some definite sort. By interference with this right we 
prevent the very Reality of our being from coming to 
its own in our selves, and through us, to its universal 
consciousness. 

Now we begin to see something of the meaning, the 
sacred importance, and the possibilities in that perfectly 
common existence, the human person. Our study 
ought to “ bring you up standing,” and inspire within 
you a sense of deepest respect for the most ordinary 
human being, and give you an uplifting consciousness 
of your own value to yourself and the world. This 
brings us on to our practical suggestions. 

Regimes of Person. 

It should be remembered that the theme of this book 
is a study in Human Person, not ethics, and above all 
not religion. Our suggestions do not concern ques¬ 
tions of right and wrong, but relate solely to the self 
as it reveals in person and life, and to satisfactory 
growth and successful conduct. We are seeking the 
greatest utility in knowledge, thought and action, for 
you. * Neither school, church, nor philosophy is of the 
least importance in comparison with your self and your 
career. The regimes that follow are for you as a 
human being. 

1. The Regime of Conscious Uplift. You are in¬ 
vited to make this thought a living thing in your con¬ 
sciousness: “ I» myself am Infinite Reality.” You 


Person 


125 


are not a fiction, a bubble, a dream. You are not a 
something separated from the common Reality. The 
actuality of all other men and women, “ kings, priests 
or gospellors,” is no truer and no greater than the 
Reality of you. When you stand looking out over 
seas, or mountains, or great cities, or the starry 
heavens, say to your self, “ I also am That.” This 
gives you the feeling of the Cosmic Consciousness. 

2. Regime of Self-Valuation. Your Reality is that 
of body, and mind, and self. You are invited to con¬ 
sider the high significance of this fact. Do not think 
of your body as “ this vile body,” as corruptible mat¬ 
ter. Think of it as a marvelous manifestation of the 
Infinite and Eternal, which is not at all separated from 
it, but is in it and is it. Do not use it as a mere thing, 
a house or an instrument; use it as your very self. Use 
it as though you were using the Almighty. Think also 
of your mind as the Infinite Reality coming to indi¬ 
vidual life-consciousness. That mind is yours, but it 
is a mind of Reality. It is a mind of Reality as your 
mind. In that mind the nature of things seeks to un¬ 
fold its possibilities. Do not retard that unfoldment 
by sluggishness, the closed door of prejudice, any form 
of fetishism or settled skepticism. Give your mind 
freedom of action; let it go out freely under your own 
direction; accept the ideas, conclusions and intuitions 
that come to it, as worth while and worthy of con¬ 
sideration, and, above all, never think of that mind as 
inferior, but be elated because you have a mind, and 
rejoice in the thought that the Infinite Reality has ex¬ 
pressed itself therein. 


126 


Creative Personality 


3. Regime of Assistance. You are a necessary 

part of the Universe, because of the fact that you are 
a phase of the Fundamental Reality. You are invited 
to put forever away from you the thought that the 
Universal Life could get on without you. The swing 
of the heavens and the march of man involve every 
existence. This includes your self. You are invited 
to hold steadily to this idea: “ I assist the ultimate 

progress of life. I also am essential to that process. 
Every day I do my part.” Do not think of this truth 
as an exaggeration. Believe it, and live up to it. 

4. Regime of Person-Consciousness. This chapter 

analyzes person in order that you may know in out¬ 
line what you are. A “core” of you is the psychic 
factor, in which you begin the control of the Reality 
manifest in body and the pre-mental and conscious 
mind. Reality in your psychic factor makes the latter 
your own, and this fact makes you the builder of your 
person. The psychic factor builds amoeba, and evolves 
up into a Christ. Therefore, that which makes a 
Christ a person makes you a person. This places you 
as person on a level with the greatest man and highest 
angel. It gives you the privilege of building your per¬ 
son, puts that matter under your control, and imposes 
upon you the obligation of “ making good.” It is 
suggested that you cultivate gladness because of your 
high standing in life. The idea is this: “ I am not a 

stock or a stone. I have arrived on the great plateau 
of personality. The psychic factor of me has put me 
together and made me that marvelous thing, a person. 


Person 


1 27 


I belong to the high-class existences of this universe. 
In this aristocracy of person I will fulfil my destiny.” 

5. Regime of Individualization. The whole signifi¬ 
cance and value of person is seen in its individuality. 
There is only one way in which men and women can 
be commonplace, that is, by failing to lift their indi¬ 
viduality from the ordinary to extraordinary type. 
The latter type, as we have seen, may be “ good ” or 
“ bad.” So far as concerns individuality, it is better 
to be a genius in crime than a fool in sin. But destruc¬ 
tive individuality has its limits, because it is an in¬ 
harmonious expression of Reality, and at some point 
Reality refuses to go further. ‘Constructive Individu¬ 
ality has no limits of j development, because here the 
Infinite Reality cannot exhaust itself. You are in¬ 
vited to belong to the ranks of those who assist in the 
ultimate progress of life, and to make every day count 
in the climax of your person as a distinctive individual. 
Do not imagine that your individuality is of no par¬ 
ticular importance, it is of the vastest importance to 
you. Only as you become individualized in the sense 
that you physically are better, or more potent, or more 
useful than others, or in the sense that you create a 
better mind, can do greater things mentally, and live 
on a higher thought level does your importance to your¬ 
self become really manifest. A Patagonian savage 
possesses infinite possibilities, but his possibilities are 
very nearly all there is of him. Of what value is this 
man to himself? Remember, that all your power and 
all your meaning and value to yourself depend upon 


128 


Creative Personality 


your development of your own individuality. Our in¬ 
spirational thought is now: “ I take joy in individual¬ 

izing the person of me. As I have come to the level 
of person among the very greatest, I now reach toward 
the greater ranks of individuality. So do I find my 
own individuality. So do I assist Reality in unfold¬ 
ing its infinite possibilities.” 

6. Regime of Identity. When you became a true 
person, you acquired an identity which you cannot 
lose. Since Reality attains consciousness in Person, 
and begins to realize in person its own necessary tend¬ 
encies of unfoldment, it will never, having gone thus 
far, turn on itself and go back, but will forever hold 
steadfastly to person, and forever advance toward com- 
pletest individuality in person. You are invited to 
emphasize this truth in your life: “lam my self, and 
none other. I cannot share my identity with that of 
any human being. No human can rob me of my per¬ 
sonal identity. I will permit no man or woman to 
obscure, decrease, or determine my individuality. I 
am for my self and all that self means and is, or can 
mean and be.” 

7. Regime of the Central Idea. In every person 
the infinite possibilities tend to specialize in certain 
capacities, or kinds of work, or lines of development. 
Every man can be or do some one thing better than 
others. This means that the individuality of every 
person centers in some one “ idea ” of Reality, so to 
speak, or group of “ ideas.” Let us say that the word 
“ idea ” means a specific possibility, or a definite func¬ 
tion. The ideas or functions are really the factors 


Person 


129 


that determine individuality. All this is true of you. 
Hence you are invited to discover the idea or func¬ 
tion in your self which distinguishes you from other 
people. There is some one thing that you can do or 
be better than other things that you can be or do. 
You may discover several such possibilities in your 
self, and you should cultivate the traits and capacities 
involved to their utmost. If, now, you seek to try 
yourself out in additional ways, you may discover that 
your real person centers in some greater idea or ideas, 
which, if worked out in your life would not only un¬ 
fold your person more completely, but also develop 
your Individuality to an astonishing degree. Occu¬ 
pied as you already are in body and mind, it is pos¬ 
sible, nevertheless, for you to make a discovery as in¬ 
dicated by giving a little time now and then to the 
thought: “ I demand to know my greatest power or 
powers. I demand the unfoldment of my unknown 
and unused capacities.” This thought will stimulate 
by suggestion your pre-mental self into new activity. 
The results will surprise you. 

8. Regime of Freedom. Freedom is your very 
life. You can not rise above the level of common 
human sameness without it. Unless you insist upon 
your freedom, you as a person will be “ flat, stale and 
unprofitable.” Only in the use of your freedom can 
you realize Reality in an individuality. These proposi¬ 
tions have greater meaning than most people con¬ 
sider. Multitudes of men and women believe that they 
employ their freedom daily, when the fact is that they 
merely respond to outside influences or to the last idea 


130 


Creative Personality 


which enters their minds. They are thinking and 
acting as almost wholly determined by the last thing 
that has come up. If there were not times in their 
careers when they were compelled deliberately to de¬ 
cide for or against influences and ideas, they would 
not be true persons at all. The act of decision makes 
their animal nature human nature, makes their human 
nature personal, and makes their person individual. 
For freedom is the power of self-determination. It 
is the capacity of control over self and life. When 
you control your thought and actions, you are ready 
to use the laws of growth, and when you do this you 
advance, enrich, and more and more complete your 
individuality. But this means that you consciously 
or unconsciously assert your freedom and your own 
free powers. Our regime, then, calls for such asser¬ 
tion. This book urges you to control your own life: 
to experiment with your life in so far as you do not 
experiment with the lives of others; to make every 
adjustment needed in your life for your own satis¬ 
faction, growth, and success; to think your own 
thoughts, to stand for your own desires and to find 
your own place and work in the world. If you cul¬ 
tivate this consciousness, “ I am surely and splendidly 
free,” you will more and more render your individual¬ 
ity strong and symmetrical. 

9. Regime of Independence. Freedom exercised 
is independence realized. There is no mutuality apart 
from free individuals. The relation between slave 
and master is not mutual; it is one-sided. This truth 
in part answers the question, How can such sugges- 


Person 


131 


tions as are given on these pages be carried out by 
people who live in a perfect net-work of human rela¬ 
tions? When a human being insists on standing em¬ 
phatically for himself, he seems to be balked on every 
hand by this terror, mutualism. But you see that there 
would be no mutualism if there were no real freedom. 
Freedom is the right and the power to unfold person 
into individuality of the highest type. This goal can 
only be attained as each person controls his own life. 
That control freedom gives to all persons alike. That 
control also involves the doctrine, “ live and let live,” 
the application of the Golden Rule, in other words, 
harmonious reactions with all other persons bent on 
the same goal and employing such freedom. In all 
development we use other people through their free¬ 
dom, and are ourselves used by them through our own 
freedom. This assertion of freedom means an in¬ 
dependence which, in thought and action, insists upon 
personal individuality in self, while respecting the 
same in others. If I control my own life for its best 
possibilities, do I not leave your life free? If I am 
independent in my thought, ways, and ambitions, do I 
ask you to be less independent? The mutualism of 
freedom gives each one the rights, privileges, and re¬ 
sponsibilities which are involved in the full develop¬ 
ment of personal individuality. A little reflection will 
show us that maxim, “ Be true to thyself,” means, 
“ Expect as much from the other person as he expects 
from you.” When this idea is carried out each of us 
will live independently in the sense of mutual inde¬ 
pendence. You are urged, therefore, to insist upon 


132 


Creative Personality 


your own will, your own mind, your own beliefs and 
opinions based in considerations satisfactory to you, 
and the freedom of living your own life so far as this 
does not restrict the equal rights of others. Our in¬ 
spirational sentence will be, “ I allow nothing to in¬ 
fluence or control my life except the ideal of Reality’s 
highest development in others.” If you wish to sub¬ 
stitute the word, “ God,” for “ Reality’s highest de¬ 
velopment in others,” you can, of course, do so, 
and possibly this will more clearly express the idea to 
you. 

10. Regime of Human Appreciation. You are in¬ 
vited to observe that these regimes are applicable to the 
other man no less than to your self. When we begin 
to get our freedom, we are apt to forget that this 
priceless possession belongs to all. If we are to ex¬ 
pect as much from any other person as the latter may 
rightly expect from us, it is evident that the other 
person may expect as much from us as we expect from 
him. Remember, then, that the individualization of 
Reality in human beings gives to all persons the same 
supreme dignity. It is suggested here that you cul¬ 
tivate a sense or recognition of the dignity of person 
and the possibilities of high individuality in all men 
and women. Let us say, as we outlook upon human 
life, “ I love all kinds of person as capable of giving 
Reality opportunity to individualize its best.” When 
you actually do this, you will be doing yourself the 
greatest possible benefit. You will think the more 
of yourself, and will assist the common Reality of us 
all to reach its highest manifestation. 


Person 


133 


11. Regime of Leadership. Those who lead in the 
world are in some respects superior to others; the 
leader may be the best man in the ditch, the most in¬ 
fluential woman in the town, or the greatest person 
in the nation. Leadership obtains on every level of 
life, but wherever it appears it means some kind of 
individuality. Individuality is influenced. By so 
much as you assert a true freedom, the independence 
of a true mutualism, and seek your own highest 
growth, that is, your own completest individuality, by 
so much do you necessarily influence others and in 
some degree lead them. The reason for this fact is 
this: Reality always seeks its own completest mani¬ 
festation, and when this tendency begins to realize in 
any one person, reality then attracts other manifesta¬ 
tions of itself in other persons and tends to control 
itself in them for the sake of a higher development in 
the former person. This is law, and there is no es¬ 
cape from it. You are therefore invited to remember 
that if you are to lead, you must make the most of 
yourself, that is, develop all your power, expand per¬ 
son in you to its greatest, and unfold your own com¬ 
pletest individuality. The inspiring thought is now, 
“ I love to be all my best.” 

12. Regime of Personal Application. The work¬ 
ing out of these regimes in detail, and their illustration 
by reference to life and literature, would fill a volume. 
It is suggested that the student be not content merely 
to read them, but that he persist in getting the central 
ideas, which are of universal application, and then 
apply them practically to himself and his life. 


134 


Creative Personality 


Multiple Personality. 

Personality is that which constitutes person. In 
every human being there seem to be elements, or 
groups of elements, which constitute more than one 
particular manifestation of person. We look back 
upon our youth, and say, “ I have maintained my 
identity, but do not seem to be that person.” At times 
this seems to be true of the present self and that of 
yesterday, or even of an hour ago. Under various in¬ 
fluences and conditions our personality undergoes very 
evident changes. You act like one person in a fit of 
anger, and like another in a state of complacency. 
The intoxication of drink brings out, as it appears, 
several different persons. This is true of nobler forms 
of intoxication, as, that of music, or the drama, or re¬ 
ligion. 

We have in these familiar facts what the author be¬ 
lieves to be at least a partial explanation of “ multiple 
personality.” Heredity puts into every human the in¬ 
cipient traits, characteristics and possibilities of many 
pre-existing persons. These persons have stamped, 
as it were, your psychic factor, your nerves and your 
brain-cells with their tendencies. Moreover, your 
tendencies and your activities seem often to group 
themselves in different ways from time to time, accord¬ 
ing to some dominating idea. When this grouping of 
activities follows some unusual idea, you appear to be 
a more or less different person. The general familiar 
control of your self and life, moreover, is sometimes 
sidetracked, so to speak, and an unusual grouping of 






Person 


135 


your activities gives certain ancestral tendencies in 
mind or brain cells opportunity to come out, and your 
control of self appears to have made a mere sidetrack 
of will the main line of will. So long as these expres¬ 
sions of person are temporary, or infrequent, or not 
very greatly pronounced, they belong to normal life. 
The normal person maintains the identity of his con¬ 
sciousness through all such manifestations, and is the 
one master of himself. When such variations appear 
frequently and are pronounced, so that the life-con¬ 
sciousness and life-control are broken, they belong to 
abnormal human nature. But in the latter cases, no 
more than in the former, have we more than one 
identical person. There is no value in any multiplica¬ 
tion of personality which involved the loss of any 
phase of continuing conscious control of self. That is 
to say, there is no value in such experiences to the 
self, whatever their value may be to an outside student 
of that self. If the one self passes into a state in 
which it can not at any instant pull itself back to its 
usual state, it loses the value of continuing self-con¬ 
trol, and gains nothing equal to that loss. To the 
medium his trance-personality can have no possible 
value for unfoldment of his person or development of 
his individuality. To the person in which one, two, 
or three personalities appear, in addition to his normal 
personality, neither one nor all of them can be of the 
slightest real benefit. The valuelessness of such ex¬ 
periences to the one having them springs from the 
fact that there is somewhere a breaking of conscious¬ 
ness and the continuity of self-control, and, therefore, 


136 


Creative Personality 


the differing experiences can not be recalled and used 
in life. This fact suggests regimes which should be 
of real utility in this age of psychology, the “ New 
Thought” and religious eccentricities. 

Certain Practical Regimes. 

Regime of Psychic Sanity. You are urged abso¬ 
lutely to refuse to surrender conscious control of your¬ 
self (use of anaesthetics not included) to any idea, or 
influence or power in heaven or on earth. Do not ex¬ 
pect to gain wisdom or any other value through such 
experiences. Maintain, first and last, your own con¬ 
scious control. If it is objected that great revelations 
have come to man through trance conditions, you are 
invited to deny the statement, and, if a single case is 
adduced, to deny the value of the revelation. 

The value of normal multiple personality springs 
from the fact that our everyday activities, and the 
usual groupings of our activities, are thus varied, and 
we thus more and more discover to ourselves our own 
possibilities. In such ways we are enabled to live in 
many different worlds. We leave the everyday world 
of toil, or business, or profession, for the world of 
amusement, or recreation. So we pass out of the 
world of our common thinking, or our common feeling, 
for some other world of unusual thought and emotion. 
All this means that in exhibiting such normal varia¬ 
tions in our personality, we are really creating all the 
many worlds in which we live. For each person ab¬ 
solutely creates his own inner life of sensation, per¬ 
ception, conception, thought, volition and emotion. 


Person 


137 


When Reality began your existence, it gave you the 
power of master over itself, and thus the ability to 
draw more and more of itself into your person, that 
is, to create its manifestations through the only crea¬ 
tive personal power in this universe, Thought. Your 
normal multiple personalities are, therefore, multiple 
inner worlds in which you live, and move, and have 
your being. The more you increase and vary your 
creative thought, the more do you increase and vary 
the grouping of your activities, and the number of 
worlds which you create. All this is true whether 
your multiple personalities be good or bad. You thus 
actually enlarge the Universe. If, now, you live in 
such a way as to assist Reality in the unfoldment of 
itself toward the ideal suggested in this chapter, your 
normal multiple personalities are of the greatest value. 
This suggests a Regime for practical inspiration. 

Regime of Varying Activities. Fixed habits, 
“ ruts,” fads, habits, indicate more or less of same¬ 
ness in one’s life, and thus prevent the psychic fac¬ 
tor from “ spreading ” out in all its possible directions. 
The habits, etc., may be legitimate and useful, but they 
act as limitations since they confine the self to their 
own activities. So, also, when one is always engaged 
in about the same unvarying work, or amusement, or 
thought, other possible activities are shut out, so to 
speak. Every normal human being possesses the most 
varied possibilities. Not to introduce variety into life, 
then, is to miss discoveries, interest, values and ex¬ 
periences which Reality provides for all, and, there¬ 
fore, to fail in the greatest and richest life and growth. 


138 


Creative Personality 


As we begin to look into this wonderful thing, person, 
we see how truly it represents and is the Infinite 
Reality. It possesses all possibilities. It is a universe 
in itself, and like the external Universe, presents no 
limits outward and onward. Moreover, the activities 
of person sustain mutual relations, and gain value from 
the very fact of such relationship. Take, for ex¬ 
ample, any living thing in naturQ. It is, say, a tree. 
Activities and development have pushed outward and 
onward to the point of maturity, and every kind of 
activity has related itself to every other kind of ac¬ 
tivity, and has received and given values in such re¬ 
lationship. The tree as a whole stands related to 
other objects, and the tree is not, and the other objects 
are not, precisely the same, had this mutual relation 
not obtained, or had it been different. Thus with the 
activities of human life. None of them is isolated, 
each of them is what it is by reason of its influence 
upon all other activities, and of the influence of other 
activities upon the one. When we push personal 
growth in various directions, any one kind of growth 
is assisted by other kinds of growth. Herein lies the 
value of variety, of changing interest, of new ideals, 
and work and thought. You are invited, then, to vary 
your activities and the lines of your development as 
greatly and as continuously as may be consistent with 
practical living. Get into “ ruts,” if you will, but get 
out of them, for why should you be in bondage to this 
thing? Form habits, as you must in order that your 
initiative may not be loaded down, but from time to 
time break these habits, in order that you may use 


Person 


139 


habit, and not be used by it. Bring into your life 
every day something new, frequently start up new 
kinds of activities, resolve on new forms of growth, 
push yourself out in new or undeveloped directions. 
Thus you give your psychic factor its greatest pos¬ 
sible opportunity. Thus you enable Reality more and 
more to realize itself. 

Sanity of Person. 

It is understood, of course, that in all these con¬ 
siderations variation of activities and development 
along new lines is to be governed with reference to 
the goal of Reality, the long-run happiness of all per¬ 
sons. This is the test by which the legitimacy of 
thought and conduct should be determined. As we 
have normal and abnormal personality, so we have 
normal and abnormal life. This fact raises the ques¬ 
tion, What is the normal or physical and mental 
action and development? 

We make our fundamental reality the Ground and 
Source of all things. Everything that is, issues from 
and is, that Reality. This is as true of a two-headed 
calf as it is of a Shakespeare. The abnormal in ex¬ 
istence is as surely an expression of reality as the nor¬ 
mal. 

Remembering this truth, and returning to our sub¬ 
jects of multiple personality, the following possibility 
is open to us: In those cases where the consciousness 
of person is broken, and other Personalities appear, 
we may have Reality expressing itself in an organism 
through alien person not belonging to that organism. 


140 


Creative Personality 


Such personalities are here abnormal because the or¬ 
ganisms are not their own, that is, they are ab¬ 
normal as appearing in that organism. The test of 
normality here, then, is the question whether or 
not a psychic factor has constructed a body or 
mind through which it manifests and can always 
maintain conscious control of the body and mind and 
work out a continuous life history. In other words 
normal person is always that in which one individual¬ 
ized psychic factor has created its physical and mental 
organs and can consciously control and develop them 
so that the life history is a unit. 

In the body cavity of some women are found de¬ 
tached forms of growth, such as a bit of hair or a 
tooth. Protoplasm has here “gone mad.” The de¬ 
velopment is out of place, and fragmentary, and could 
never by any possibility become a human organism. 
So far as concerns, say, the tooth, growth is perfectly 
normal, but it is abnormal as an end or a contribution, 
because it is out of place, out of relation, and can in 
no way signify a human body. 

Similarly with reference to multiple personalities. 
Certain types may appear in an organism, but are out 
of place so far as the life history of the individual is 
concerned, and can not develop a unified history of 
conscious action and development. They are normal 
enough within themselves, but are abnormal in rela¬ 
tion to the body in which they appear, or the person 
which they disturb. They are manifests of Reality, 
but of Reality gone mad, as it were. The only con¬ 
ceivable end or goal for Reality in its unfoldment of 


Person 


141 


itself is seen in a consistently developed and con¬ 
tinuously conscious person. Abnormal personalities 
violate this law. 

Now, the previous discussion indicates the normal 
for differing phases of person and life which do not 
break up consciousness into unrelated sections. In 
idiocy personal consciousness may maintain its identity 
through life. Yet idiocy is abnormal. So also with 
some forms of insanity. Yet insanity is abnormal. 
If consciousness holds over in such cases, and we vote 
them abnormal, what is the test of normality? We 
find the answer to such questions in the relation which 
any phase of person bears to a development of person 
which makes for happiness and harmony throughout 
the Universe. Happiness and harmony express per¬ 
fection of physical and mental being. Personality be¬ 
comes abnormal, even if consciousness continues a 
unit, when, if it were to become universal, this would 
mean universal unhappiness and disharmony. Per¬ 
sonality, or any phase of personal life, which bears 
this meaning can not possibly make for completeness 
of person or greatness of individuality. It stands for 
incompleteness, is out of place, and has no justifica¬ 
tion, or ideal, or goal in itself. 

These considerations seek, of course, merely to 
present general principles. The principles have their 
place in our common thought about the normal and 
the abnormal, but when we try to apply them to all 
cases we find that our opinions differ greatly. We all 
know what the normal is, but can with difficulty only 
decide specific questions. We have, therefore, to turn 


142 


Creative Personality 


such questions over to the general consensus of opin¬ 
ion. This consensus varies from age to age and in 
different lands, but the great principles above indi¬ 
cated are always the main criteria by which men dis¬ 
criminate the abnormal person from the normal, un¬ 
desirable personality from desirable, and experience 
and life which are approved from those which are con¬ 
demned. Thus do we sit in judgment on Reality itself. 
Rather, does Reality thus pass judgment upon itself, 
and in seeking its own completest unfoldment in per¬ 
son, seek to correct its own vagaries and “ insanity.” 

Now our definition of person as a system of activi¬ 
ties, or of groups of activities, organized by Reality out 
of itself into individualized, conscious and self-con¬ 
trolling intelligence, indicates that person is separated 
from Reality in every other manifestation. But all 
is Reality, and, since this is so, and since persons seem 
to affect one another in ways not altogether explained 
by ordinary methods of communication, it will be well 
to ask, What are the limits of personal being? This 
question we discuss under two headings, as below. 

Boundaries of Person. 

The core, so to speak, of person is the psychic fac¬ 
tor of Reality individualized. That core is the pri¬ 
mary self. Now, since the self is a manifest of Real¬ 
ity, and the reality of the self constitutes its power to 
put forth what are called subconscious activities, to 
create mind, and to build the body, that is to say, to 
construct person, we see that the latter marks itself 


Person 


143 


off as the I-Reality from the Not-I-Reality. Where 
do the lines of demarkation fall ? 

The physical boundaries of person seem perfectly 
evident. But when we begin to examine into this mat¬ 
ter, it is not so clear. The boundaries which we recog¬ 
nize turn out to be merely those which are apparent to 
sight and touch. All physical bodies give off emana¬ 
tions perceptible to smell. Moreover, as Radium ex¬ 
cites etheric waves that radiate beyond itself, so, it 
would seem, that the human body, since it is matter 
in a state of intense activity, and is, therefore, the 
ether in a state of intense activity, must induce etheric 
activity beyond its visible boundaries. But all this 
means that the Universal Reality constituting body is 
also active in that universal medium which surrounds 
body. We shall have to say, then, that the boundary 
of the physical phase of person extends beyond its 
visible lines. This invisible extension of person is 
sometimes called the aura. It is here called The Per¬ 
sonal Atmosphere. This extension of body is not 
merely an influence of body: it is an integral part of 
body, for every body possesses an atmosphere that is 
distinctive to itself. 

The earth’s atmosphere is a part of this planet, and 
is distinctive to it. The universal ether is a part of 
our known Universe, and it may be distinctive to that 
Universe. Some scientists hold that only on our earth 
do the conditions prevail which make physical life 
possible. But this means merely the life that we call 
physical. Other planets may possess atmospheres 
that are perfect for other kinds of life. The universal 


144 


Creative Personality 


ether seems essential to those forms of Reality which 
we call light, magnetism and so on. We may sup¬ 
pose, therefore, that the ether of our Universe is dis¬ 
tinctive to it, and that it makes life in its human variety 
possible. 

But it may very well be conceived that, as other 
planets may possess atmospheres befitting other than 
physical life, so there may be even in our Universe 
as we know it an Unseen Universe possessed of a me¬ 
dium corresponding, in a sense, to our ether and ca¬ 
pable of maintaining other varieties of life. These 
varieties we should think of as spiritual, that is, as 
non-material, yet actual existences. Our physical 
etheric personal atmosphere would then have a corre¬ 
sponding spiritual personal atmosphere. So, also, will 
our physical bodies contain, as it were, the spiritual 
body. And, as our personal atmosphere gets its char¬ 
acter from the character of our physical bodies be¬ 
cause really an extension of the same, so must the 
spiritual body derive its character from the physical, 
and so must the spiritual personal atmosphere take 
character from the spiritual body. 

We thus begin to see the immense importance of 
growing person in all possible directions and to the 
fullest extent, and of developing individuality to its 
utmost in that ideal sense which means universal wel¬ 
fare. A completer discussion may be found in the 
author’s book, “The Personal Atmosphere.” 

A similar line of thought is indicated for the mental 
boundaries of person. The mind, as we shall see in 
later chapters, is a system of established activities of 


Person 


145 


the self in knowing. Our mental boundaries are ap¬ 
parently set by the extent and kind of such activities. 
We may illustrate by referring to a great electric sign 
consisting of thousands of parti-colored light-bulbs. 
The light is never on in all these bulbs at any one 
time. The light is never on in any one color of the 
bulbs at one time. The light is never off at any one 
time. Always the light is flashing somewhere in the 
sign. Always one or more colors are visible. The 
configurations made by the colors and the lights in¬ 
cessantly change. Nevertheless, there is always some 
kind of coloration and illumination. Thus with the 
human mind. There is a sum-total of activities at any 
instant. This is consciousness. These activities are 
all varieties of knowing activities. Each activity has 
a meaning peculiar to itself. This is true of any given 
activity and of any given kind of activity. For ex¬ 
ample, you now remember something, and the remem¬ 
bering is a given activity of a memory-kind of ac¬ 
tivity. There are here two meanings: an Activity 
which has the meaning, " this memory,” and the gen¬ 
eral faculty-meaning, Memory. Thus with every 
other mental “ faculty ” and its activity. Now we 
do not know that the familiar meaning of our mental 
activities exhaust their possible meaning. For ex¬ 
ample, we can conceive of a consciousness which 
should embrace so-called memories as of the present. 
We can conceive of what is now labored reasoning as 
being an all-embracing intuition. It is evident that 
every mental activity indicates capabilities beyond any¬ 
thing we know, and not only in the extent of its doing, 


146 


Creative Personality 


but also in the kind and meaning. As related to the 
senses, we have clairvoyance, which is mental seeing 
without physical eyes, and clairaudience, which is 
mental hearing without physical ears. We have also 
a kind of sixth sense, which seems to be a feeling 
with reference to present conditions, or with reference 
even to future events. All such experiences suggest 
that our mental boundaries are surely more extensive 
than we commonly suppose. We neighbor diviner ac¬ 
tivities. It is as if the ordinary mind possessed, or is 
possessed by, a vaster Mind. As a matter of fact, all 
the intelligence in mind of the Infinite Reality goes 
into every human mind. Our familiar mental activi¬ 
ties seem all to have a meaning which we can not 
fathom, a mysterious significance which, it appears, if 
we could only make it out, must make our familiar mind 
seem in comparison utterly infantile. Every thought 
that we have seems second-handed; it is already made 
when we get it. This first making of our mental ac¬ 
tivities, together with the fact that they seem always 
to mean more than we can fathom, indicate that there 
is for each person a mental as well as a physical at¬ 
mosphere. That atmosphere is more or less vague and 
extensive, but it is a part of the mind and gives us 
our mental boundaries. 

The above conception may be further indicated by 
reference to certain correspondence between some ma¬ 
terial forces and psychic powers. We speak, for ex¬ 
ample, of attraction by gravitation, and we exercise 
psychic attraction upon others. So, also, physical 
magnetism gives us a phrasing for personal magnetism. 


Person 


14 7 


So, also, a speaker is said to electrify his hearers. So, 
also, we have the idea, the heat of anger. For such 
illustration it may be suggested that our ordinary men¬ 
tal activities may all “cover,” as it were activities 
which, on a higher plane of existences than the pres¬ 
ent, would compare with the ordinary mind as, say, 
personal magnetism compares with physical magnet¬ 
ism. In other words, the mind as we know it may 
operate within what may be called a spiritual mind, 
more refined and more extended in its outreach into 
Reality. 

In any event, our mental activities are the activities 
of Reality within us, and have their boundary within 
the Infinite Reality. This makes the human mind to 
embrace Infinite Reality as a part of itself. 

We see this tremendous truth when we consider the 
subconscious activity of the self. These activities 
seem to express greater and finer powers than those 
of which we are commonly aware. In their opera¬ 
tions they approach or resemble the mechanical work¬ 
ing of the nature of things. We hold that the Funda¬ 
mental Reality in Nature operates mechanically, that 
is, unvaryingly and uniformally according to the law 
of cause and effect. When we, in the exercise of will, 
constitute causes, the Fundamental Reality brings forth 
the effect. We can change our causes, but we can 
not vary the consequences, except by introducing new 
causes. The subconscious activities appear to operate 
in precisely such a mechanical manner. We can fur¬ 
nish the psychic factor with suggestions, which oper¬ 
ate as causes, but we can not otherwise control it in 


148 


Creative Personality 


its subconscious workings. This is because the sub¬ 
conscious activities are those of the Fundamental 
Reality in the psychic factor void of what we call the 
personal will. The boundary of the subconscious ac¬ 
tivities would thus seem to disappear in the Infinite 
Reality. 

Evidently, then, the psychic factor, the self, has 
only a boundary in the sense that it is an individualized 
phase of the Infinite Reality. The thought may be 
illustrated by reference to a smoke-ring in the midst 
of smoke, or a little whirlwind in the air, or an electron 
in the universal ether. We here conceive of the self, 
or the psychic factor, as being simply the center and 
initial of person. Thus is it suggested that every hu¬ 
man person in reality extends infinitely out, as we may 
say, in all directions. This indicates a regime of the 
greatest importance. 

Regime: Oneness With the Infinite. It is urged 
that you never, for a moment, practically forget that 
you are one in nature with Infinite Life, or the Funda¬ 
mental Reality. The boundaries of the different 
phases of your person never separate you from that 
Life or Reality. They are conveniences only of the 
development of person in individuality. When this 
thought becomes a part of your every day conscious¬ 
ness, you may look up into the stars with eyes or tele¬ 
scope, or mentally confront the Universe and say, “ All 
this is mine, I myself am That.” He who maintains 
this thought has come at least to the beginning of per¬ 
son-greatness. The thought tends to put away the 


Person 


149 


ideas of bonds, bondage, and boundaries, which are 
always enemies to progress. 

Limitations of Person. 

We now seek to get at the same truth in a slightly 
different way. The idea of boundaries express limita¬ 
tion in the sense of parting off body, mind or self. 
The present thought concerns limitation in the sense 
of nature and power. 

Let us imagine two lines joining and forming an 
infinitesimal angle, but extending out from the angle 
indefinitely. The space between the lines at the angle 
is very small, yet is in no way different from the space 
between the lines anywhere along their extension. 
The more the lines extend outward, the more they di¬ 
verge, and the greater becomes the space between them. 
The only limitations of the included space are the 
diverging side-lines. There are never any limitations 
in front, as it were, of the angle. When the Infinite 
Reality begins to individualize its psychic factor in the 
human self, it puts the whole of its essence into that 
self in the sense of the latter’s humanness. However 
perfectly the psychic factor in the self develops into 
person and in individuality, it is always bounded, and 
essentially limited by what may be called the side¬ 
lines of its human nature. Otherwise it may in its 
history embrace more and more of Infinite Reality. 

We have the conception in larger form in the evolu¬ 
tion of life. The first form of life on this planet cor¬ 
responded to the infinitesimal angle of our illustration. 


150 


Creative Personality 


The Infinite Reality went all into it as a type of life. 
As evolution advanced, the side-lines of “ primal type 
of life ” also advanced and diverged as the possibilities 
of infinite life were more and more individualized. 
Thus came type after type of differentiated organisms, 
type after type of individualized psychic factor, type 
after type of conscious intelligence. Finally appeared 
man. Here physical evolution began to find its limita¬ 
tions in the perfected human body and in the highest 
type of human person. From this point on the psychic 
and mental side-lines extend and diverge indefinitely. 
Always into the human goes all of the Infinite Life 
as defined in humanness, but always may the human 
life give the Infinite Life more and more favorable 
opportunities for unfolding itself. The poorest Hot¬ 
tentot represents the human allness of the Infinite Life, 
but a Goethe, a Farrady, or a Lincoln, represents de¬ 
velopment within the human limitations which ap¬ 
proximates more and more an infinitude of possibility. 

This conception of unlimited human development 
is illustrated in every phase of human person. Take, 
for example, the body. Consider the differences be¬ 
tween an unclothed hairy First-Man and a Greek 
Apollo. In the differences we see how reality may 
individualize, differentiate and refine itself. Con¬ 
sider the clumsiness of an African savage in his use 
of mind and hands, on the one hand, and a skilled 
Japanese artisan, an American mechanic, and a mod¬ 
ern sculptor of the first order. Again has that reality 
of the savage improved its expression up into higher 
ideals. Consider the weakness of the human organ- 


Person 


151 


ism in former ages as it grappled with disease and 
death, and the advancing ability now evident to proph¬ 
esy a time when these enemies shall be forever ban¬ 
ished from the face of earth. More and more does 
man climb higher, does he embrace within himself the 
powers and the mastership of Infinite Reality even in 
that which the Christian Bible calls “ this vile body.” 
Let us assist in substituting for this atrocious idea 
the real truth, “ Know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost?” 

Take the mind. In the lowest form of animal life 
actions which appear to express the animal’s intelli¬ 
gence are perhaps mere mechanical responses to ex¬ 
ternal influences. We have here the provisions for in¬ 
telligence in the Fundamental Reality beginning to 
actualize in the animal body. In higher forms this 
intelligence manifests in instinct. In the highest 
forms below man the intelligence of instinct seems 
to reach the beginnings of reason. Thus far the side¬ 
lines of the mental angle have to include so much of 
reality’s possibilities that further progress becomes a 
new order of mind. This means that the space in¬ 
cluded between the side-lines of the angle is really 
bounded by what may be called the limiting line of the 
animal nature. As in the body of man Reality reaches 
the limit of its physical expression, so it arrives in the 
animal mind at a point beyond which it cannot go and 
still remain animal. In order to represent the human 
mind we must conceive of a new angle. This angle 
can never become an inclosed space, as it were. The 
infinite possibilities of mind in person may be indicated 


152 


Creative Personality 


in two ways. We may compare the finest modern 
civilization with the mental life of primitive man. 
Progress has advanced so far that we instinctively 
feel that it might go on forever. We have, also, sug¬ 
gested above that every mental activity may come 
more and more to new and higher meanings, and that 
the ordinary mental operations will also represent 
what may be called, for want of a better term, the 
spiritual mind. Thus may we conceive of every hu¬ 
man person as confronting the Infinite and claiming it 
as his own. This brings us to a proposition which 
becomes startling in proportion as it is made definite, 
as follows: 

The laws of life are quantitively and qualitatively 
infinite, and man possesses an unlimited power to know 
and use those laws . 

The Infinite Reality contains all possibilities, and 
must, therefore, provide for all numbers and kinds 
of manifestations. So far as we know, its highest 
manifestation appears in person. Since person is 
Reality so far as manifested, and mind in person is the 
same Reality so far as manifested, and all Reality 
manifested beyond person is forever a subject for 
man’s knowing, we see that the only limitations to hu¬ 
man progress are those which may be laid by human¬ 
ness. Now, this statement is for you to accept as true 
of yourself. We all freely imagine great things for 
man’s general progress, yet instinctively set up for 
ourselves all sorts of limitations. Thus do we con¬ 
fuse words. We think of man as an entity, forgetting 
that in fact the only entities are men and women. So 


Person 


153 


we think of progress as a mysterious something apart 
from individual progress. The only limitations of 
man are his human nature. Your only limitations are 
your nature as an individual human person. This 
suggests an interesting regime. 

Regime: Putting Aside All Limiting Ideas. There 
are several ideas which dominate us with a feeling of 
limitation. The idea of body is an example. It seems 
to bind us, and we are obsessed by the belief that the 
body must die. If, however, it could always perfectly 
adjust itself internally to every change in its environ¬ 
ment, we have no reason whatever to suppose that the 
organism would not be immortal. And we have rea¬ 
son to believe that by so much as man learns to live, 
physically and mentally, in harmony with universal 
law, he will more and more acquire the power to 
make such adjustment. If it is suggested that life 
seems to run down, expend its force, the answer is, 
that life is not a mysterious something in addition to 
results of chemical activity, but is a phase of such 
chemical activity. So long as the continuous adjust¬ 
ment of the organisms to changes in environment is 
maintained, the integrity of the chemical activities 
must go on. You are invited resolutely to set about 
the test of putting away the thought that you are 
doomed to disease and death, and to substitute for 
such thought the ideas of health and indefinite life. 
Physical immortality is, it is true, a far-off event but 
it is your privilege to assist man’s struggle for that 
goal. 

The sense of being bound by the body gives us the 


154 


Creative Personality 


idea of special limitations. This idea begets in us the 
further idea of temporal limitations. Always these 
ideas dominate us, and impose obstacles to our free¬ 
dom. Now let us observe: 

The limitations of space are merely temporal. 
Space would not seem to bound us were time annihi¬ 
lated, for we should then be able to go anywhere on 
the instant. You feel physical limitations because it 
takes time for you to put your body where you wish. 
You load yourself down unnecessarily with such ideas. 
It is not the body that thinks and wills, it is the per¬ 
son, and at some time in the career of person it will 
slough off that body and cease to be dominated by the 
spacial notion. 

The limitations of time are merely spacial. In our 
thought the movement of the body through space in¬ 
volves duration. Dividing the distance between two 
points in space into infinitesimal sections, we think of 
the man as enduring or continuing through the sections 
from one to another. The fact is that we have here 
a number of consecutive movements. If we have no 
idea of space, the idea of consecutiveness of move¬ 
ment would disappear. Our mental activities do not 
occupy space, but follow one another in some sort of 
consecutive order. There is here non-spacial dura¬ 
tion. The fact that two mental activities can not oc¬ 
cur at the same instant does not present a limitation. 
If we lived in non-spacial conditions, what we call the 
limitations of time would merely involve the ceasing 
of one mental activity and the occurrence of another. 
Let us remember that throughout the Universe the 


Person 


155 


only activities that actually exist are taking place 
now. The whole Universe exists contemporaneously. 
Past activities have ceased, and future activities have 
not begun. The limitations of space and time are, 
therefore, the limitations that we impose upon our¬ 
selves by our ideas. These ideas may be more or less 
necessitated by our present conditions, but we have 
the power of refusing to permit them to overweigh us 
and develop within us a sense of weakness and finite¬ 
ness. The method of release from this limiting sense 
consists of filling consciousness, as we may say, with 
the thought, “ I am Infinite Life, and I put away from 
myself all limiting ideas that would tend to make me 
less.” 

Practical Outcome. 

Every human being is more or less metaphysical in 
his thought. It is only when we try to investigate our¬ 
selves in some thoroughgoing manner, and begin to 
discover what a marvelous thing human nature is and 
how complex that very familiar existence, person, that 
metaphysics seems to get out of all relation with 
practical living. Because this is so the reader is 
urged not to abandon to study the suggestions pre¬ 
sented in this chapter, not to forego the inspiration 
which those suggestions will surely bring to him if he 
accepts them and makes them a part of his daily life. 
You can not avoid being Infinite Reality and possess¬ 
ing unlimited possibilities as a man or a woman. You 
are invited to live more and more in the consciousness 
that you are really great, and high, and fine, and that 


156 


Creative Personality 


you as person may, if you will, unfold into individual¬ 
ity beyond all your dreams. These suggestions are as 
applicable to the ditch-digger as to a Buddha. Let us 
sing, with Lanier: 

“As the marsh-hen builds her a nest on the watery 
sod, 

Behold, I will lay me a-hold on the greatness of God.” 


LAW: Reaction of the Self with the Not-Self 
Gives Consciousness Power in Growth. 


CHAPTER V. 

EXPERIENCE. 

W E have seen that the Fundamental Reality 
is qualitatively infinite, always the same 
and identical throughout with itself, and 
contains within itself the sole reason for its own ex¬ 
istence. Accepting this definition, we see that Reality 
provides in itself for all possible existences. It is, of 
course, not such existences until they become. Never¬ 
theless, when they become, it goes into them, and 
each one of them is, by reason of that becoming, a 
phase of the one identical Reality. Each existence as 
a manifest is itself, and none other. But no existence 
is in essence separable from that which constitutes all 
things. 

Prefatory. 

We may say of every existence that it is of its own 
kind. For convenience this statement may read: 
Every existence embodies an idea or a group of ideas 
determined by some one central idea. We say so be¬ 
cause, on investigation of any object of existence, our 
minds interpret it in terms of ideas. Thus we feel 
that the Universe is Reality manifested in a vast com¬ 
plex of ideas, and that, therefore, every single thing 
within it is to us as if it were a thought. So does our 
157 


158 


Creative Personality 


intelligence read the Universal Intelligence and put 
into it a thought-element. This thought-element is 
really our own and does not exist prior to the mani¬ 
festation of Reality in the Universe and its object. 
If we could think of the Fundamental Reality prior to 
its expression in anything whatever, we should con¬ 
ceive of it as possessing all possibilities but as not 
realizing in any possibility. 

Now, these so-called ideas which we discover in all 
things indicate to us the limitations of Reality’s mani¬ 
festation in any existence or in any direction. So we 
feel that our Universe could not be any other kind of 
Universe, or grow into any other essentially different 
kind of Universe. And for this reason, we hold that 
a rose bush, for example, could not be an oak tree, that 
a butterfly could not be an eagle, that a horse could 
not be a man, and that a man can only continue to be 
human however much he may unfold Reality in per¬ 
son and individuality. We have seen that human per¬ 
son has always before it unlimited possibilities of 
growth, but that evolution in lower orders of life 
climaxes Reality’s manifestations at man. At this 
point a new order must begin. 

From these considerations we draw a conclusion: 
every human person is a kind of universal center. 

Person a Universal Center. 

The whole essence of Reality goes into the human 
psychic factor “ for the sake of ” unfoldment in per¬ 
son in the sense of human psychic factor as actual, 
and in the sense of unlimited possibilities of develop- 


Experience 


159 


ment in person. This statement is not true of any 
other order of existence below man. The whole es¬ 
sence of Reality goes into every object lower than man 
in the sense only that such object is actual. But the 
actuality of such objects exhausts in themselves; they 
can not in themselves unfold into higher planes. We 
see here an illustration of the meaning of our former 
proposition that all objects seem to represent an idea, 
and that that idea limits them. The idea, Human, limits 
person only in the sense that man may never become 
anything other than man; he may always embrace as a 
human more and more of the Infinite. When we ap¬ 
prehend this thought, we perceive that, in whatever di¬ 
rection he may grow into the Infinite, he can never 
find any limitations to his growth, because, the more 
he grows, the more must Infinite Reality open up be¬ 
fore him. We may say — 

“ Veil upon veil shall lift, 

Still there must be veil upon veil behind.” 

Let us then, at this point, pause a moment with a 
helpful suggestion: Regime of the Luminious Center. 
There are depths in ocean where scarcely a movement 
occurs; the activities and confusion above are here un¬ 
manifest. There are voids in space where etheric 
waves pass undisturbed on their illimitable way. For 
every human self there are the inner recesses of its 
own being where, if one could be still enough, one 
might become conscious of the All-Reality of this 
Universe. “From my earliest childhood, I have al¬ 
ways had a sort of belief that if one were to stoop 


160 


Creative Personality 


very low, held one’s breath, and made a bold spring, 
one would break through and under the barriers, and 
be there. Or, one might go very suddenly around a 
corner, and be there. Always there was the sensation 
that it was lying just beyond, just outside of oneself, 
and that only a certain heaviness of the flesh, a cer¬ 
tain lack of concentration of attention, prevented one’s 
participation in it. I can not define what the other life 
is. It is all around you. I feel it in the water. If 
I could only look close enough into the shifting depths, 
I should see — a hand clasped quickly enough would 
grasp — what always just evades. I feel it around me 
breathing and watching in the woods. It is what I 
can not quite catch in the talk of the birds. It is what 
the animals say with their eyes. It is so subtle —.” 

Thus do we sometimes feel as present in all things 
the Infinite Reality, which, because we are phases of it, 
seems to elude us and vanish behind the visible and 
tangible. And we feel that this is so wherever we are, 
wherever we might go, into whatever state, physical or 
non-physical, we might pass. In such manner may the 
idea be expressed, that each person seems to center all 
things. When we realize this thought, we begin to 
know that “ all things are yours.” This realization 
should carry with it a sense of peace and poise and 
power. You are invited, then, to arrest your activities 
from time to time, and, in a listening and expecting 
mental attitude, to think, “lama universal center; I 
am inviting to myself all the values of life.” 

Only an existence which is less than infinite, and 
which yet centers the infinite in the sense that it may 


Experience 


161 


always immediately unfold within itself more and more 
of the Infinite; can we have experience. The reason 
for this curious proposition will be made to appear 
when we analyze the nature of experience. 

The Nature of Experience. 

The word “ experience ” is derived from a Sanskrit 
word, Par, “ to fare,” “ advance,” “ travel,” “ go 
through.” From thence came a Greek word, Perao, 
“ I pass through,” and a further word, Peirao, “ I try.” 
We have also the Latin words, Perere, “ to try,” and 
Ex, “ to make a thorough trial.” 

We may say, then, that to experience is to fare 
through and test out. Let us examine this idea of 
“ faring through.” 

We speak of “ going through life,” “ traveling 
through time.” In these pages we have come to think 
of ourselves as being phases of Reality, as being sur¬ 
rounded by Reality and as making our way through 
and growing into Reality. Now, this is true of every 
individual object in the Universe. It is also true of 
the Universe itself. The meaning is, that Reality is 
forever and universally becoming manifest. This be¬ 
coming is a complex of illimitable activities in the pres¬ 
ent tense. It is not a became; it is not a to-become. 
The became has been a becoming; the to-become will 
be a becoming. Neither the became nor the to-become 
has any existence except as ideas, and always the ideas 
occur in the now. We see, then, that the only mani¬ 
fests of Reality that have any existence are those that 
now exist. Reality manifests all that it does manifest 


162 


Creative Personality 


at once and in the present. This makes all objects, 
persons, and events throughout the Universe con¬ 
temporary. We should not, however, think of this con¬ 
temporaneousness as a line separating a past from a 
future. Rather, we illustrate our thought by referring 
to the Galactic Circle, the Milky Way. There is here 
a vast number of planets, stars, nebulae, and so on, all 
engaged in the present in a state of intense and com¬ 
plex activity. Every one of the bodies is acted upon 
in the present by all other bodies, and is now reacting 
in various ways upon all other bodies. In other 
words, all manifests of Reality exist in and constitute 
what we may call a total Environment. We pause to 
examine this fact. 


Environment. 

The mutual interaction of things and persons consti¬ 
tutes environment. If we can discover the influence 
which one existence exerts upon another, we say that 
the former is a part of the environment of the latter. 
When we can not discover that influence, we say that 
the former existence is a part of the surrounding of 
the latter. Our conception of the Universe as a vast 
system of innumerable groups of existences, that is, of 
activities, makes every object to be what it is by reason 
of the action upon it of all other objects of the Uni¬ 
verse, and of its reaction thereto. This fact gives us 
the beginning of our analysis of experience. The law 
of universal action and reaction operates upon objects 
and persons alike. But it is the quality of the reaction 
of person to the universal environment that raises ex- 


Experience 


163 


perience on the person-plane, and makes it impossible 
on any other plane. In its nature, then, experience is 
a reaction and a product of reaction of person to the 
universal environment. This will appear as we pro¬ 
ceed to analyze experience into its factors, and note 
those without which it cannot occur. 



Analysis of Experience. 


Experience is not alone a reaction, or a product of 
reaction, of person; it involves activities possible only 
in person. Supposing any object to have a limited 
period of existence, we might say that the sum-total of 
its activities during that period would constitute its his¬ 
tory. Then we would say that its history consists of 
a series of experiences. Thus we might speak of the 
history and experiences of an atom of Uranium, from 
the time of the element’s beginning through all the 
course of disintegration through radium and beyond. 
Or we might speak of the history and experiences of a 
plant from seed to death. We should feel, however, 
that such speech would be incorrect. It would be a 
figure, and not a fact, on closer examination. You 
might speak of the history and experiences of an earth¬ 
worm, especially, perhaps, if it dies on an angler’s 
hook. Nevertheless, the lack of some certain element 
makes this speech also figurative. We might go on, 
now, to speak of the history and experiences of a world 
or a Universe. At first thought, this use of words will 
seem to be correct. But if we ask the question, In 
what sense universal history can consist of expe¬ 
riences ? we are compelled to answer, In the sense only 


164 


Creative Personality 


that the intelligence provided in the Infinite Reality 
comes to intelligent individuality in Reality’s expres¬ 
sions of its nature. History occurs as intelligent indi¬ 
viduals make it, and not otherwise. Experiences occur 
only in true histories. When we speak of the expe¬ 
riences of an atom, a plant, or animal, we merely in¬ 
terpret the activities of these objects in terms of our 
own natures. This is a kind of personification. 

It appears, therefore, that if we are to analyze ex¬ 
perience, we must analyze person. We have seen that 
person is an organized system of activities necessarily 
involving conscious, self-directive intelligence. Since 
it is organized out of Reality, Reality as manifested is 
its environment. Since it is intelligent, it is conscious. 
Since it is conscious intelligence, it is a “ chooser-be- 
tween,” that is, self-directive. Thus emerge the ele¬ 
ments of experience, as follows: 

First Element. There is action of person, both 
physical and mental. This action is always a present 
one. Other actions have occurred in or by person, but 
they have ceased, and now are not. Other actions will 
occur, but these are not yet, and when they take place 
will be now-actions. These now-actions are occa¬ 
sioned by other actions external to them, but are caused 
by person itself. The first element of experience, then, 
is some kind of action, not only of person, but by 
person. 

Second Element. There is consciousness in person 
that such actions are its own. They are not merely 
actions, they are my actions. They are not the actions 
of other objects, or persons, or of a Universe oper- 


Experience 


165 


ating through me, apart from me they could not exist 
at all. Our second element of experience is a sense 
of activities as personal to me. 

Third Element. There is consciousness of the I as 
originating and claiming such activities. The first 
element is simply actions, the second element is actions 
possessed, the third element is the possessor aware of 
himself as the cause of actions, that is as a self. 

Fourth Element. There are actions that are not of 
the self. Such are the actions of all objects as they 
affect us, and of all persons which influence us in any 
way. The thought here is that the Universe consists 
of two sets of existences, those which constitute you, 
and those which constitute everything else. The latter 
incessantly act upon you, affect you, influence you. 
Such actions are the fouth element. 

Fifth Element. There is consciousness of actions 
of the Not-I as of the Not-I. This means that the I 
is aware not only of the self and its actions, but also 
of another existence, or of other existences outside of 
self. 

Sixth Element. There is a sense of the continuing 
identity of the self or person and of a world of things 
and persons beyond. Along with all these previous 
elements goes the idea, “ I maintain, and have main¬ 
tained, my personal identity through all my personal 
activities.” This idea necessitates a sense of the 
identity of a Not-I as maintained through all its own 
activities. This sense of the maintained identity of the 
self and the Not-self is the essence of memory. We 
shall see in a later chapter that memory is a mental ac- 


166 


Creative Personality 


tion repeating an action that has occurred and ceased, 
but associated with the idea that both activities belong 
to the identical self. 

Seventh Element. There is a sense that the self 
or person will hold its identity over from one present 
to another, and that the actions of self will go over 
from one present to another. This is the idea of the 
future, as the sixth element involves the idea of the 
past and its memory. 

Eighth Element. There is ability to make use of all 
these elements, of all these actions and ideas, with 
reference to a future condition of person. This is 
the heart and essence of experience. Without this 
ability no experience obtains. It is not here meant 
that experience necessitates the wisdom to make a 
profitable use of such factors. We say, “ he never 
can learn from experience.” Even when this is true, 
the person possesses the human ability as a mental 
possibility, to recall his actions that have occurred and, 
because of them, to self-direct his present actions in a 
way to determine his actions in the future. 

We are now ready to define experience. Experience 
is a recallable and usable recognition of actions of the 
I and the Not-I , having as an outcome development of 
person. 

This recognition signifies the “ faring-through,” or 
“ testing-out,” referred to in a preceding paragraph. 

The idea of faring-through suggests physical mo¬ 
tion. We have the power of moving the body from 
one place to another, that is, we are able to travel 
through space. It is the wonderfulness of this fact 


Experience 


1 67 


that brings us to the consideration of our power to 
fare through on the level, as it were, of a higher mean¬ 
ing. We walk by a series of falls lifting one foot, ad¬ 
vancing it, and falling upon it. We do this by an act 
of will setting the required muscles into action in 
which the body is balanced by habits of adjustment 
which also exhibit the act of will. All this illus¬ 
trates the marvelous control of matter by mind. 
Just how this is done, that is, how mind controls the 
muscles, we do not know, in the last analysis. Never¬ 
theless, the fact remains as stated, and means that we 
move the body through space by thought. We thus 
see that we fare through space by using thought as a 
motive power. In truth, thought is our only motive 
power on any level of action. Whether walking, or 
rolling on wheels, or pushing through waters, or flying 
through the air, the sole motive power is thought. 

But it is thought that has analyzed this process of 
faring-through, and it is thought that has invented all 
means of locomotion, and it is thought that has started 
a necessary cause of action and movement, and has 
foreseen all the results that have followed. In all 
these operations of thought we have been engaged in 
faring through the realm of ideas, that of facts, prin¬ 
ciples, laws, truths, and so on, and also in testing out 
the actuality and validity and value of ideas, methods, 
means and ends. We thus see that every moment of 
our waking existence we are faring through the world 
of Reality, both in its seen and its unseen aspects, and 
testing out how matters are, how they seem to be, 
how they will turn out to be we “ travel through ” 


168 


Creative Personality 


the material and non-material Universe. The outcome 
of this experience is progress, in the history of the 
Individual, and in that of man. This brings us to 
the consideration of a proposition, already advanced, 
which at first thought seems entirely evident, but which, 
on closer examination, suggests a question: Is real 
progress possible on any plane of existence below that 
of person? The answer is negative. We now pro¬ 
ceed to work out this conclusion. 

Experience Possible Only to Person. 

Recalling our definition of experience, The recallable 
and usable recognition of actions of the self and the 
not-self, we see that the analysis of it makes its factors 
impossible to any existence other than that of person. 
Let us apply this statement as follows. 

Plants have no experience, so far as we know, in 
any true sense of the word, because they have no in¬ 
dividual consciousness and lack the ideas of con¬ 
tinuing identity, memory and the future. If we speak 
of the experience of a plant, we transfer to it more or 
less of the meaning of our own personality. 

This is true also in regard to animals, except in very 
low degrees. The animal has a vague sense of self, 
but does not think of itself as I, knows itself in a way, 
but does not know that it knows. There is just 
enough memory to maintain the organism, more or 
less, since the animal possesses the power of locomo¬ 
tion. It moves about, and hence it must get to what 
it needs, and adjust itself to changing conditions. It 
acts as though it had the idea of a future, but does not 


Experience 


169 


know that it has that idea, and is driven so to act by 
what we may call the organic memory. When we 
speak of the animal’s experience, we again transfer 
to it more or less of the items of our analysis, that is, 
we interpret its acts in language appropriate to our 
own. 

Matter has no power of experience. It appears to 
act with intelligence, because it operates under the law 
of cause and effect, but when we say this we are in¬ 
terpreting both the intelligence and the law in per¬ 
sonal terms. The intelligence is our idea of the fact 
that under certain conditions certain results obtain. 
The causes operate mechanically, that is to say, in¬ 
variably and uniformly. In other words, matter ex¬ 
hibits a vast number ofi habits of activity, and these 
habits look intelligent because they always wind up 
in certain results. All these facts we are prone to con¬ 
ceive in a personal way, and we should summarize the 
total outcome as the history and experience of the 
Universe. When we do this, we simply personify the 
Universe and its matter. 

The ether has no power of experience. We do not 
personify this universal ground of matter and medium 
of force, except in the interest of some theory of 
philosophy or theology. Science comes more and 
more to conceive of all the operations of nature below 
man as mechanical. To science the ether is a hypo¬ 
thetical or actual medium through which various kinds 
of force are manifest and matter is constituted. The 
activities of the chemical elements are invariably me¬ 
chanical, as are also the activities of the electrons com- 


170 


Creative Personality 


posing the elements, and the forces, electricity, mag¬ 
netism, and the like. If we could not discover here 
uniformity and invariability of action, we should be 
unable to attribute to the ether any intelligence what¬ 
ever. 

The Fundamental Reality has no power of experi¬ 
ence, except as it manifests in person. We are as 
prone to personify the Fundamental Reality as we are 
to personify ether, matter, plants, and animals. That 
is to say, when we conceive of it we try to interpret it 
as independent of ourselves or as existing aside from 
personal existences, and yet in language suitable to 
person. We note the following objections to this pro¬ 
cedure. 

We have defined Reality as “ That which is always 
the same throughout and identical with itself.” To 
this abstract conception the idea of experience as 
analyzed above can not apply, since there is here 
merely infinite oneness, no individualization, no dif¬ 
ferentiation into parts and actions. Until Reality 
manifests itself, there can be no interaction with itself, 
and there can be no intelligence capable of the ideas of 
continuing identity, a past and a future. The Funda¬ 
mental Reality is not mind, but is that which contains 
within itself provisions for mind, and which may mani¬ 
fest in mind. It is not consciousness, but is the in¬ 
finite provision for consciousness which may manifest 
in consciouness. It is not intelligence, but contains the 
provisions of intelligence which may come to intelli¬ 
gence. It can not react with anything other than it¬ 
self because itself is all. It can not recall past actions 


Experience 


171 


of itself, because it can only act in the present, and 
past action being the all and having ceased, there is 
nothing which may be recalled or nothing left with 
power to recall. Hence, the Fundamental Reality, 
conceived as an abstract conception, or as manifest in 
matter, ether, plants or animals, can have no experi¬ 
ence whatever, until that appears which makes it pos¬ 
sible that there shall be reaction between a manifest 
self and a not-self manifest, a recallable and usable 
recognition of the interactions of the same. 

As we confront this conclusion, we are met by the 
assault of most of our ideas of progress. Let us ex¬ 
amine this matter with some care. We now announce 
a somewhat startling proposition. 

Progress Possible only to Person. 

By progress we mean advancement in organism, 
life and mentality, having the quality of inherent 
utility. When we ask, What is the meaning of utility? 
we must answer the question by reference to somq 
universal standard. It is impossible to find such a 
standard in Reality and in its manifests, in ether, mat¬ 
ter, chemical compound, or physical organisms. For 
if such existences only obtained, wherein would their 
utility consist? We make toward the conception of 
utility in any object only through some other object. 
Starting from the universal ether in our search for a 
final intermediary, or “ object-through-which,” we 
shall come to an endless series in the world of Nature. 
Neither the first nor the last member of the series can 
satisfy our judgment in regard to inherent utility, or 


172 


Creative Personality 


seem to justify anything in the series, or justify the 
Universe itself. A few illustrations will make clear 
this truth. The only assignable justification for the 
ether must be found in matter; the only assignable 
justification of matter is seen in plants and animals. 
The only assignable justification for plants and animals 
is seen in — let the reader answer. The “ history ” 
of the planet, Earth, discloses utility, or justifies itself, 
in — let the reader answer. Take any apparently con¬ 
nected series of existences, and find the utility of any 
member of the series, or the final utility of the whole 
and — let the reader say what it is. Take any line of 
antecedents and consequences occurring from the be¬ 
ginning of things, and — let the reader determine the 
final utility. Begin the search with any so-called First 
Cause, and — let the reader discover an adequate Final 
Cause or ultimate justifiable Effect. When the 
reader becomes conscious of the full import of these 
illustrations, he will have projected himself, not in an 
egoistic sense, but in the sense that he is a universal 
type, into the answer in every instance. We are so 
constituted that we can not help coming to the con¬ 
clusion indicated the moment we really discover the 
meaning of any search for utility. Let us state our 
conclusion in a definite proposition. 

All utility is relative to person in some type. 

Nothing seems to have meaning, usefulness, or jus¬ 
tification with reference to any object of existence 
other than person. When we ask, What is the utility 
of a universal medium, the ether? we run on from 
electrons to atoms or chemical elements, compounds, 


Experience 


173 


organisms, great forces, mentality — person. If there 
were no person on earth, nothing in it would have any 
value or meaning. If we could banish from our 
thought of the Universe all personal existence, in¬ 
cluding our own, it would become an infinite interroga¬ 
tion point. If we could banish from our thought 
of the Universe all personal experiences save our 
own,— your individual own,— it would then have 
meaning and utility. The one individual would then 
set about doing his best to use that Universe. If he 
were a philosopher, and if he permitted his mind to 
act wholly and truly, he would affirm, “ Utility of every 
existence in this Universe, and of the Universe as a 
whole, makes toward and has reference to myself.” 
The only way in which he could get the idea of prog¬ 
ress or advancement in the history of earth and the 
Universe would be by setting himself up as person for 
a standard. If we now in our thought recall into the 
Universe all persons that exist therein, we see that, 
since every individual would necessarily arrive at the 
same conclusion, our universal standard of utility is 
— Person, human and other than human. 

Now, these considerations appear to bring out utility 
in every existence below that of person, and making 
toward person. This seems to demonstrate progress 
in the world below man, or to indicate advancement 
having the quality of utility. At first thought it would 
surely seem that the world made progress from chaos 
to humanity. But the conclusion is apparent only. 
It projects into the world before man the idea, in¬ 
telligent direction toward a goal. That is to say, it 


174 


Creative Personality 


personifies Reality and its manifestations. We believe 
that all this is error. Let us examine this assertion. 

The operations of Reality prior to its manifestation 
in person are absolutely mechanical in the sense that 
they are uniform, invariable and immutable. They 
merely show forth what we call the nature of things. 
We therefore affirm — 

The nature of things, apart from person, is a uni¬ 
versal blunderer and exhibits no utility and no moral 
quality whatever. We take up the two phases of this 
statement. 

The Nature of Things a Blunderer. 

The evidence that the nature of things below person 
is a blunderer is the cause of innumerable mental prob¬ 
lems concerning the world. All things are expressions 
of the nature of things, and are therefore of its pro¬ 
visions. In bringing the nature of things to judgment, 
we must coordinate all the facts, and not select there¬ 
from according to our theories, and form our con¬ 
clusions without fear or favor. In looking the world 
over, and in running through its “ history,” we find all 
sorts of apparently commendable objects and activities, 
and we are apt, therefore, to believe that some sort 
of wisdom has all along been at work. Here again, 
we have projected our personal quality into the nature 
of things. If we are to do this with regard to com¬ 
mendable objects and activities, we must do the same 
as regards objects and activities that do not appear 
commendable, in which case we should correspondingly 
assume that a lack of wisdom has appeared. We may 


Experience 


175 


list all known objects and activities which seem to have 
utility for the career of person, and it will then seem 
that we are proving advancement in Nature’s past and 
present, and, if our theories permit, we will then at¬ 
tribute such so-called advancement to some superior 
order of intelligence. When, however, we list all con¬ 
trary objects and activities, we must either deny the 
intelligence, or throw the facts into the waste-basket 
notion, our inability to understand. But this latter 
conclusion is only a make-shift convenience. If we 
have ability to dispose of some facts in one way, we 
have also ability to dispose of the other facts in a 
way consistent therewith. That is to say, it is our 
mental obligation to dispose of all the facts regard¬ 
less of any theory. If we do this, we shall say that 
some of the facts appear to indicate intelligence at 
work, and that other facts appear to indicate a lack of 
intelligence. In our final mental attitude, we shall re¬ 
fuse to project personality into the nature of things, 
and affirm that the world before man has blundered 
on its way toward man. 

The words “ to blunder,” mean “ to proceed in a 
blind, awkward or stupid way.” This phrase is em¬ 
ployed by intelligent thought to cover a lack of in¬ 
telligence. It may refer to outcomes which we call 
satisfactory as well as to those which we regard as un¬ 
satisfactory. Whether an outcome is satisfactory or 
unsatisfactory always depends upon its relations to our 
personal life. We say that a man blundered into suc¬ 
cess, blundered to victory, and so on. We say also 
that a man does not succeed because of his blunders, 


176 


Creative Personality 


that he has met defeat by reason of blundering. We 
mean that in such cases there has been a lack of in¬ 
telligence. Always here we standardize everything 
by reference to human welfare. If, now, we find ob¬ 
jects and activities in the world’s past and present 
which uncoerced reason does not necessarily conclude 
make for welfare of person, we must refer then to a 
lack of intelligence. And if we find objects and ac¬ 
tivities in the world’s past and present which appear to 
make for welfare of person, we must conclude that 
they are the results of a blindly working nature of 
things. This conclusion reasons out as follows: The 
working of the nature of things is absolutely mechani¬ 
cal. If we make this mechanical working-out the re¬ 
sult of intelligence, we place behind Nature a blun¬ 
derer. Observe the facts. We may go back to the 
beginning of things, and note the process of world¬ 
forming. The whole process is mechanical, and we 
may conclude that in the planet prior to life Reality 
has merely expressed its own nature. The process is 
so vast and so mechanical, that is, so uniform, in¬ 
variable and immutable that, if this were all we could 
know about it, we should find it absolutely impossible 
to affirm that any intelligence has been at work. We 
might, and probably would, infer that what we call 
intelligence may, perhaps, be on its way. But we 
could go no further than this with unbiased reason. 
There is no utility in this process except as it after¬ 
wards appears in person and therefore no advance¬ 
ment until person comes onto the stage. If utility 
and advancement do finally emerge, they are not as 


Experience 


1 77 


yet in evidence, and are as likely to be the outcome of 
blundering accidents as they are of intelligence, which 
outcome only discloses itself in a mechanism that will 
work as well without an intelligence, so far as we can 
discover. When we say that all this process is an 
unfolding of Fundamental Reality by reason of its 
own nature, we reach a basic proposition beyond which 
we can not go, and when we hold that the Fundamental 
Reality “ contains ” within itself provisions for all 
this including intelligence, as they emerge, we have 
covered the whole situation, and may await further 
conclusions. 

We may go back in our thoughts to the beginning of 
life on this planet. In what way life appeared we do 
not, of course, know. We do know that from the first 
unicellular organism to the completion of physical evo¬ 
lution in the organism of man, every type of life and 
every individual organism has been the outcome of 
conditions which could do no other than produce it. 
The conditions have been special and general. By 
general conditions we mean the whole state of the 
Universe at any one time, or, the whole state of the 
world at any one time. By special conditions we 
mean those in which the individual life emerges. The 
special conditions are always the outcomes of the gen¬ 
eral. At no one time could the general conditions be 
other than they are, since they were the outcomes of 
preceding uniform, invariable and immutable opera¬ 
tions of the whole system. The special conditions are, 
therefore, the outcomes of uniform, invariable and 
immutable general conditions operating along particu- 


178 


Creative Personality 


lar lines. We see, then, that every individual living 
organism has been determined by what has preceded it. 
We may refer all the processes and outcomes involved 
to the mechanically unfolding Fundamental Reality, 
containing within itself provisions for intelligence 
when this shall emerge. We can only get intelligence 
into the process by projecting our personal quality 
backward, but we have no reason, and no right, to 
do this until person has appeared. Thus far not a 
scrap of person has emerged. If we knew only the 
whole process, general and specific conditions, and 
the outcomes, up to this point, and were to refuse to 
project our personal qualities into them, we should 
find at work nothing whatever save mechanism. Let 
us now broadly review these two vast processes. 

Remembering that person has not yet appeared, we 
see that there is nothing whatever in star-mist and 
fire-dust having any utility in itself. We are prone to 
find utility in these things and the conditions obtaining 
because, now that we know results, we see here certain 
tendencies toward a planet and toward a life making 
man possible. But man has not yet emerged, and from 
anything yet discoverable, may never emerge. If we 
could conceive that man did not emerge, not a scintilla 
of evidence would there be of utility in nebular mat¬ 
ter or in its solidification into a globe. What utility 
has a molten mass of matter in itself alone? Or in 
the Plutonic rocks? Or in weltering seas and mois¬ 
ture-laden atmospheres? Or in masses of metal dis¬ 
tributed through the earth? Or in huge cataclysms, 
world-wide settlements of weather, eruptions and 


Experience 


179 


subsidences, and all the confused events of the purely 
physical process of planet-making? All these items 
indicate, so far as themselves alone are concerned, the 
operation of a machine. And since they had at the 
time no utility in themselves, we may not thrust utility 
into them by mere personifying thought. If we con¬ 
ceive that man has never appeared, the facts demon¬ 
strate no advancement toward no nameable useful 
goal, and, therefore, reveal no progress, except in the 
sense that the workings of a machine might indicate 
progress if we only knew what it was capable of do¬ 
ing. In any stage of the machine’s working prior to 
the revelation of what it is capable of doing, we should 
only see on-goings, but should be totally unable to 
affirm any real progress. So far as concerns the 
items of the purely physical process of planet-making, 
any one of them seems as truly referable to blundering 
as to wisdom. Moreover, the whole process thus far 
is chemical. The chemical elements are the results 
of the preceding operation of nebular stuff. The 
nebular stuff evolved into the chemical element in uni¬ 
form, invariable and immutable ways. The evolution 
gives no evidence of other than mechanism. The 
chemical elements formed the hundreds of thousands 
of compounds in the non-living world in ways that 
were also uniform, invariable and immutable. When 
specific conditions obtained, specific results occurred. 
The specific conditions reveal fixed chemical laws. It 
is not conceivable that any electron, atom, molecule 
or compound, or mass of compounds, or position and 
relation of these in reference to any others or the 


180 


Creative Personality 


whole sum-total of matter could at any time have 
been in the slightest degree other than it has been. 
These conditions may indicate what may be called a 
preparation for man, but man has not yet appeared, 
and thus far there is nothing whatever to indicate that 
he will appear. If he does appear, the whole process 
is so mechanical and so indeterminate, that such a re¬ 
sult may turn out to be a blunder, an accidental con¬ 
sequence. When, again, we refer the whole physical 
process covered by the science of Geology to the me¬ 
chanical unfolding of the nature of Fundamental Real- 
ity, we go as far as the facts furnished by the physical 
process will allow. 

The facts involved in the life-process prior to man 
lead to the same conclusion. There is all along a 
change from simpler organisms to complex, and more 
and more this change involves a multiplication of 
function, but there is nothing in the process or in the 
results to indicate advancement, since there is nothing 
to show that a complex organism is better than a 
simple one, or that an organism that performs its work 
among many functions is better than one that per¬ 
forms any work anywhere within itself. Our reason 
for assuming advancement here is because we know 
the events, project our personality into them, and 
then assume that the latter forms are improvements 
upon the earlier. If we could not know the final out¬ 
come, we should have no reason whatever for this as¬ 
sumption. If we compare living structures with one 
another, we get the same negative conclusion. From 
anything that appears prior to man and independently 


Experience 


181 


of man, we are unable to affirm that, for example, 
Dinosaur, a huge geological animal, is in any way 
superior to Amoeba, a simple mass of protoplasm which 
we can observe moving about in a drop of water un¬ 
der a microscope. Aside from the personal point of 
view, there is no reason to suppose that a bird having 
the power of flight is superior to a reptile which must 
crawl about in the mud, that a butterfly existing in 
tropical conditions is more beautiful than a turtle, 
or that a trout is more useful and lovely than an eel. 
Similarly, we should be at a loss as to the relative 
“ merits ” of a palm and a date tree, of a poison ivy 
and a rose bush, of a cane field and a marsh of wild 
rice. In all such an impersonal out-look we see that 
things are merely what they are, and we can only con¬ 
clude that the nature of things has simply expressed 
itself in various ways, any one of which, were it not 
for the fact that all things are mechanical products 
of preceding conditions, might take any other blunder¬ 
ing direction. The mechanical production of results 
in the vast complex process of life is no ground for 
the assumption of progress without the standard of 
the personal life, and so far as we can discover, might 
mean anything other than the personal life. The un¬ 
folding of the nature of things in its various expres¬ 
sions in living organisms, which is simply the mani¬ 
festation of Fundamental Reality, may no more be 
called progressive, if person is not to emerge, than 
might the convolutions of a billowing mass of smoke, 
or the changing forms and colors of oil on the surface 
of water when the latter is stirred. In later science 


182 


Creative Personality 


we have the theory of the disintegration of matter to 
illustrate further. It is said, that Uranium goes to 
pieces in a long series of events, yielding Radium as 
one member in the series and Lead as a final result. 
Possibly all forms of matter, or chemical elements, are 
phases of a general process of disintegration. If we 
disregard the question of utility to man, we do not 
know whether matter is in a state of progress or of 
retrogression. Referring to events preceding the ap¬ 
pearance of person on the planet, we are compelled to 
conclude that progress and retrogression are meaning¬ 
less words. The whole situation is exhausted in this 
conclusion, we have here a meaningless manifestation 
of Fundamental Reality, or simply an exhibition of 
the nature of things. 

But man has actually appeared. Reality finally ex¬ 
presses itself in person. Its outcome means that the 
provision in Reality for intelligence has finally realized 
in intelligence — become a fact. We must be careful 
not to put higher interpretation upon the matter than 
bare conditions warrant. The beginning of person is 
the emergence of psychic factor. Psychic factor is a 
result of the mechanical working of the nature of 
things, but before it creates person there is not a scin¬ 
tilla of evidence that it is not itself mechanical and 
that it ever will create person. So far as we can de¬ 
termine, if we could take the personal element out of 
the view, psychic factor has no more utility than pot¬ 
ash, and the idea of advancement from a compound 
of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, consti¬ 
tuting a mass of protoplasm, to psychic factor, is ab- 


Experience 


183 


solutely out of sight. The process is thus far a mean¬ 
ingless manifestation of Fundamental Reality. 

Psychic factor has, however, creative person. It 
has served as a primal mechanical expression of the na¬ 
ture of things. In that process by which it builds per¬ 
son, that is, exhibits a mechanical, reasonless subcon¬ 
scious self, builds a body, constructs a nervous system, 
concentrates itself in a brain and brain-centers, con¬ 
structs a mind, gets hold of itself in will, and begins 
consciously the direction of a career,— every stage of 
the process is rigidly determined by preceding con¬ 
ditions, is purely mechanical and yields not the slight¬ 
est evidence of progress, if we refuse to project 
our own personal notions into it. Consider a hu¬ 
man body devoid of the human person: no supe¬ 
riority over the body of a whale. Consider a hu¬ 
man brain devoid of a will-controlled mind: no su¬ 
periority. In mere psychic factor prior to man, we 
have the equivalents of sensation, perception, memory, 
instinctive reasoning, and so on, the elements of mind. 
Consider any one of these equivalents, or the sum- 
total, aside from completed person: no superiority. 
It is the whole combination that constitutes person. 
Until the total personality appears, there are no dem¬ 
onstrations whatever that Fundamental Reality is 
making any progress in the expression of its nature. 
All results are products of the uniform, invariable and 
immutable workings of the nature of things, and if we 
decline to project into them our views as of completed 
personality, they might as well be, and possibly may be 
anything other than what they are. 


184 


Creative Personality 


Person Standardizes the Universe. 

But person has arrived. In this event Reality be¬ 
gins, so far forth, to achieve consciousness. The pro¬ 
vision in Reality for consciousness has realized. That 
is to say, Reality has begun to realize the provision 
within itself for manifest intelligence. The process 
leading up to this result has been purely mechanical, 
the fixed workings of uniform, invariable, and im¬ 
mutable laws, or the working of the nature of things, 
which could not have been otherwise. But at the in¬ 
stant of the appearance of person,— the emergency 
of true intelligence,— the element of contingency en¬ 
ters the whole situation. This means that heretofore 
nothing has been contingent save in the sense that 
everything has been dependent upon preceding con¬ 
ditions. When person comes, preceding conditions 
more or less affect the action of intelligence, but are 
also more or less controlled by what we call will. 
Prior to person there has been no will, but only the 
provision in Reality for will involved in the provision 
for intelligence. The realization of this provision in 
the coming of person introduces free self-direction into 
the manifestation of Reality. Reality now becomes, 
as expressed in person, self-directed. Its mechanical 
workings now come under a degree of conscious con¬ 
trol. This conscious person-control of itself is the 
first final end toward which Reality has tended in its 
unfoldment of its nature. The end is indicated in 
any individual person, but, of course, consists of the 


Experience 185 

sum-total personal consciousness throughout the Uni¬ 
verse. 

Let us observe here that this sum-total includes all 
types of person existent. Such types may be indi¬ 
cated as follows: First type, Deity; second type, 
man; third type, all other persons. We know human 
person, which fact will here suffice. We do not know 
other types, but may remark concerning Deity, that 
Deity is the infinite and eternal realization of the pro¬ 
vision in Reality for person. This means that Deity 
is the infinitely and eternally self-controlled Intelli¬ 
gence. Deity is therefore the infinitely and eternally 
moral expression of the provisions in Reality for uni¬ 
versal harmony. All other types of person are also 
expressions of provisions in Reality for person, are, 
therefore, mechanically achieved results of the work¬ 
ing of the nature of things, are in origin independent 
of Deity, and have had a beginning, but are open to the 
influence of other persons and of any other higher In¬ 
telligence consciously working for the final goal of 
universal harmony. 

Returning, now, to person in its finite type, we see 
that real progress in the unfolding of Reality in 
worlds begins with the arrival of such types of per¬ 
son. Without such types nothing has utility. Since 
Deity is the perfect expression of Reality along lines 
of person, there can be no conceivable utility in a so- 
called material Universe until other types of person 
appear. The utility of such types to Deity is seen 
solely in the fact that they afford Deity opportunity for 


186 


Creative Personality 


the exercise of its moral functions. If, in our 
thought, we divest Deity of this opportunity, we are 
unable to conceive of any relation or of any utility 
between them and a so-called Creator. We see, then, 
that from all points of view, person standardizes the 
Universe. Nothing has utility aside from person. 
Nothing can make progress possible. All utility and 
progress have some relation to person. In person 
Reality becomes individualized and self-controlled in¬ 
telligence. This establishes the foundation for ex¬ 
perience. The appearance of person is the beginning 
of experience. Only in experience can the factors of 
experience already indicated come into being, only 
through experience can Reality get its opportunity 
to unfold person toward perfection, or harmonious ex¬ 
istence. 

An object is in a state of harmony when it is, at 
any stage of its existence, so related to the whole sys¬ 
tem of objects that if every other object were so re¬ 
lated, the system would infallibly achieve happiness in 
person . 

Universal harmony, then, is the sine qua non of 
universal personal happiness. The individual person 
can achieve happiness only through harmony with the 
whole Universe, and can achieve this only through 
experience. This brings us to a large conclusion. 

Goal of the Universe. 

The only assignable goal of a system of activities is 
the expression of the best possibilities of the system. 
The only conceivable meaning of “ best possibilities ” 


Experience 


187 


is a state of harmony, or perfect equilibrium among 
such activities. The Universe is a system of activities, 
personal and otherwise, the goal of which is a state of 
universal equilibrium, or harmony. We know that 
this goal can not be achieved apart from two things: 
Person and Experience. Person must be involved in 
the goal because person is a part of a system; ex¬ 
perience must be involved in reaching the goal 
because only through experience may person be 
brought to a condition of universal harmony. Thus 
again does it appear that person standardizes all 
things. Without the idea of person we should not 
have the slightest reason for affirming any state 
of matter or any condition of worlds to be that of 
harmony. So far as matter goes, a shapeless piece 
of clay, a raging conflagration or an indian simoon, 
is as truly in a state of harmony as a diamond crystal, 
an orchid’s bloom, or the planet Uranus. Har¬ 
mony appears only in a relation of utility to person. 
Prior to person therefore there is no progress, and 
progress is secured only through experience. 

When reality mechanically organizes out of itself 
conscious, self-directive individual intelligence, real 
progress begins, since now a standard for utility is 
raised in the appearance of person. This would be 
true even were the individual the only person in exist¬ 
ence. An infinite personal existence can not make 
progress because it is always qualitatively infinite, is 
always all that person can be. Were the finite per¬ 
son supposed above the only person in existence the 
only progress possible would exhibit within the limits 


188 


Creative Personality 


of that person’s career, because the working of the 
material Universe would be now as purely mechanical 
as they had been prior to person, and would be as 
equally devoid of utility save as person established 
that utility. The progress which would infallibly ap¬ 
pear with the appearance of the one person would 
consist of the unfoldment of that person through self- 
direction. Thus would Reality have one line of ad¬ 
vancement in the manifestation of itself in conscious 
development. 

If, now, we assume, which is the fact, an increasing 
number of appearances of person, we see that the 
opportunities for real progress in the unfolding of 
Reality through such persons must be continually 
multiplied. The consciousness and self-direction of 
all the persons in existence, including the infinite, be¬ 
come the consciousness and self-direction of manifest 
Reality. This does not mean that Reality has now 
become a compound of persons; nor does it mean a 
mysterious universal consciousness—save that of the 
Infinite; it means that Reality has achieved conscious¬ 
ness in each consciousness of the total number of 
persons existent. Reality now turns on itself, as it 
were, and having found consciousness and self-direc¬ 
tion in the persons, gives utility to its material mani¬ 
festations throughout the Universe, which is used by 
self-directive experience for advancement in personal 
unfoldment. We are not to suppose, however, that 
this use of utility by Reality makes person a puppet 
of Reality, because Reality can only make such use 
as a person discovers utility and takes advantage 


Experience 


189 


thereof. The progress is achieved by Reality only 
because Reality is now person and person is Reality. 
The goal of the Universe is the unfoldment of Reality 
in the development of the sum-total of its finite per¬ 
son continually making on toward a universal condi¬ 
tion in which all persons achieve happiness. 

In our analysis of experience, we have seen that 
experience involves awareness of self as person, of a 
not-self, of actions of the not-self upon the self, of 
reactions of the self thereto, of continuing self-identity, 
and of ideas of past and present. Remembering that 
Reality achieves consciousness and self-direction in 
the sum-total of its persons, we may now say that the 
goal of the Universe involves the working of all these 
elements of experience. Thus, and in this sense, 
Reality unfolds in the way of progress through a kind 
of universal experience which is conscious and self¬ 
directive. This also expresses the nature of things. 
It is the nature of Reality to mechanically become a 
material Universe. It is the nature of things mechanic¬ 
ally to produce person. It is the nature of Reality to 
consciously and self-directively unfold its possibilities 
through the experiences of person. It is the nature 
of person to unfold its possibilities and have experi¬ 
ence. By experience person unfolds and learns its 
lesson. In the sum-total experiences of all persons 
Reality ceases to be purely mechanical in its mani¬ 
festations, and learn as those lessons require for the 
attainment of the final goal, harmony and happiness. 
In the sense that reality achieves consciousness in the 
sum-total of its persons, we may speak of the experi- 


190 


Creative Personality 


ence of the Universe. Through such experience the 
Universe self-directively unfolds toward a state of 
harmony and makes true history. Person unfolds 
only by reacting to the action of external existences, 
and learns by experience to control and direct such 
reactions in its own interest. Thus universal prog¬ 
ress is made by the sum-total reactions of person ac¬ 
cording to the lessons of the universal experience. 
Two outcomes follow: There is an universal per¬ 
sonal development, which involves an increasingly 
greater and greater unfoldment of the provisions of 
Reality, and there is an increasingly greater and 
greater bringing of matter by person under its own 
control. From this latter outcome a startling result 
may be conceived, to wit: through the reaction of per¬ 
son to external influences and through the increasing 
control or use of matter by person, matter becomes 
more and more docile and refined, until, ultimately, it 
becomes, so far as its present apparently gross form is 
concerned, etherealized and is absorbed into the sum- 
total of persons throughout the Universe, and is 
“ spiritualized.” This means, taken up into the per¬ 
sonal manifestation of Reality. Thus would matter 
disappear in person. 

Human history illustrates the first outcome and 
seems to foreshadow the second. More and more as 
man brought matter under his control through the 
progress of experience, so that to-day material and 
scientific civilization is a wonder in our eyes. When 
we consider the difference between geological matter 
or unused matter to-day, and matter after it is 


Experience 


191 


brought under cultivation; between what we would 
call crude matter and the refinements of modern his¬ 
tory; between matter in the body of an aboriginal 
man and matter in the body of a perfectly healthy and 
highly cultivated and ideally perfected woman, or, 
of a Christ “ after the resurrection; ” some indication 
of the ultimate “ spiritualization ” of matter through 
use and control of person is indicated. And this is no 
dream. The facts and the known influence of “ mind 
over matter ” make what would apparently be a dream 
a legitimate conclusion. The goal of the Universe 
will thus include the final disappearance of matter, as 
we now conceive it, in the sum-total of personal his¬ 
tory. Thus does Reality pass through various stages 
of its manifestations and finally emerge in a form of 
manifestation in which eternally unfolding person is 
“ all and in all.” 

The place and work of certain phases of Reality in 
achieving this goal would now seem to be evident. 
Observing that Deity, matter and finite person are all, 
in origin and maintenance, independent manifestations 
of Reality, we indicate briefly the functions of such 
phases with reference to each other. The function of 
Deity is purely moral, seeking to influence all persons 
so to live as to assist toward the universal goal. The 
function of finite person, with reference to Deity, is 
to minister to the latter’s satisfaction in the realization 
of such growth, and also to unfold itself toward the 
goal. The function of matter is that it becomes a 
staging for the above stupendous drama, and that it 
may be transformed into varied utilities as the drama 


192 


Creative Personality 


goes on. Certain conditions of matter appear to oper¬ 
ate otherwise, as, for example, may be seen in poisons 
and other deleterious substances, matter’s stubborn 
reluctance to do man’s bidding, the disastrous violence 
of its forces at times and the persistent habit of its 
living forms of disintegrating in what we call death. 
It is the function of experience to obviate, set aside, 
or control these opposing conditions. And we believe 
that ultimately human experience will achieve such 
function. Man will learn the right use of poisons, 
and come so to live that no substance will prove harm¬ 
ful to him. He will acquire the wisdom necessary to 
a satisfactory adjustment of himself to Nature’s 
forces and their control for his best use. He will 
arrive at a mental intuition and power which will en¬ 
able him to avoid accident and to coerce the operations 
of Nature to his own will, and finally, he will conquer 
death. All these conditions and activities which ap¬ 
parently oppose progress may be and are utilized by 
experience for human progress. Only by experience 
can they be so utilized. Experience makes even death 
a teacher, since, confronting it, person may learn how 
to avoid it or to “ prepare ” for the succeeding exist¬ 
ence. However much in this last respect experience 
falls somewhat short, it is error to suppose, as always 
has been supposed, and, indeed, is now, that it is neces¬ 
sary for person to pass through the incident called 
death in order to gain anything. It remains for man 
to learn through experience that whatever he might 
gain through the incident of death, or in some other 


Experience 


193 


state of existence, he may gain by continuing to live 
in his present state of existence. He may learn this 
lesson through the highest exercise of his reason, 
which should teach that if the individual can keep 
right on living, living physically, living mentally, liv¬ 
ing in all the marvelous ways possible to him, he may 
go continually on unfolding all the possibilities of his 
nature toward a condition which shall realize the uni¬ 
versal goal of harmony and happiness. There is ab¬ 
solutely no utility in a dead body, and the more human 
person comes to right adjustment, physically, mentally 
and otherwise to environment, the earth and the Uni¬ 
verse, the more shall he refine the living organism and 
impart to it the power to conquer death. We believe 
the time will come when death will be conquered, not 
only in sentimental theory, but in the actual fact. 
This means that we believe in an immortality on this 
earth in which the human body will cease to be ma¬ 
terial in its present gross form, and in which the hu¬ 
man mind will achieve all the powers that could sup¬ 
posedly belong to it at that period of its existence. 
Then may we truly sing, “ O Death, where is thy vic¬ 
tory?” It is a singular fact that the Christian 
church should miss the point and oppose it, in this con¬ 
nection. All Christian theology clings around the 
idea death. In common phases of the Christian re¬ 
ligion death is the main thing. Thought, imagery, 
ceremony, belief and expectation emphasize death in 
all possible ways. The Christian religion declares 
that death shall be conquered, yet insist, and will give 


194 


Creative Personality 


battle on the insistence, that the only way in which 
any human can conquer death is by dying. This is a 
marvelous conclusion. It is the only known case in 
human thought of conquering a specific thing by being 
defeated by that specific thing. It is significant, we 
may also say, that Deity has not conquered death by 
dying, and that, so far as we know, no other higher in¬ 
telligence has yielded to death in order to conquer it. 
The significance of the statement is this: Deity is 
deathless, not because it is Deity, but because it is 
such an unfoldment of Reality that it can not in any 
respect cease to be what it is. If human person after 
death becomes deathless, which is the Christian sup¬ 
position, this is because it also can not in any respect 
cease to be what it is. This is a condition of personal 
unfoldment, not a material one at all. The Christian 
would say that the condition is spiritual, in both the 
non-material and the religious sense. The main fact, 
however, would be the spiritual, the moral and reli¬ 
gious condition. We hold that such a condition is 
possible prior to death, and that as the condition is 
more and more attained on earth, it will more and 
more give to the body power to maintain itself indefi¬ 
nitely or will more and more refine the body into what 
the Bible writer called “ a spiritual body.” In all this 
we do not intend to question the truth of the Christian 
religion; our purpose is merely to indicate a phase of 
the outworkings of experience. 

We are now ready to draw out of the preceding 
mass of general discussion certain more specific con¬ 
siderations leading up to our practical regimes. 


Experience 


195 


Value of Experience. 

When Reality becomes manifest in person, the me¬ 
chanical working of the nature of things is more or 
less modified in self-directive consciousness. That 
is to say, the nature of things realizes in what we are 
compelled to call “ higher ” forms. In the mechanical 
field every object is acted upon more or less by every 
other object, and reacts thereto, and is what it is at 
any moment by reason of such action and reaction. 
In the personal field, also, every person is acted upon 
more or less by his environment of matter and men, 
and unceasingly reacts thereto, and is precisely what 
he is by reason of such action and reaction. But, 
while in the former case, the reaction is mechanical in 
the sense of being pre-determined, or in the sense that 
it could not conceivably be otherwise than it is, in the 
latter case the reaction is not rigidly pre-determined, 
or that it always might conceivably be different. This 
fact, our inveterate feeling that any of our actions 
might conceivably be different if we so decided, puts 
the elements of experience together and gives it value. 

Since each person is continually acted upon by exter¬ 
nal influences, which now include those of his own 
body, each is incessantly in a state of acting-back 
or reaction thereto. In a general way this reaction 
is more or less mechanical in its nature. Nevertheless, 
the mechanical reaction may at any time be arrested, 
diverted, or controlled. As a matter of fact, there 
is always, along with the mechanical reaction, a 
“ line ” of control running through the former. The 


196 


Creative Personality 


person, forever assailed by the outside world, forever 
acted upon by external existences, is continually feel¬ 
ing around and seeking to discover the best thing to 
do, the best way to go. There is also an incessant 
curiosity to know the meaning of the various actions 
upon it of which person is conscious. This condition 
of feeling around and of curiosity (or craving to 
know) constitutes that familiar state which we call 
restlessness. Personal restlessness seems to be the 
first and basic value involved in experience, since it 
drives person into activities which compel it to have 
and to resort to experience. 

The power to be restless is at least one of the pri¬ 
mary expressions of psychic factor. Restlessly psy¬ 
chic factor puts forth one activity after another in its 
tendency toward person until at last person is 
achieved. This restless action of tendency is in psy¬ 
chic factor what may be called trial initiative. Such 
trial initiative appears when psychic factor builds per¬ 
son. In building person psychic factor tries out one 
after another line of activity in its use of matter until 
finally it settles into a system of habituated activities 
in matter which we call the human body. Similarly, 
it puts forth one activity after another in its tendency 
to realize its highest provisions for intelligence, that 
is, to interpret all actions upon it by external exist¬ 
ences, until at last it settles into a system of habituated 
activities which we call the human mind. Similarly, 
person puts forth one activity after another in re¬ 
sponse to external action upon it, and manifest rest¬ 
lessness and habit in a complex system of activities 


Experience 


19 7 


which we call human life. In the two former proc¬ 
esses we have an exhibit of the nature of things in 
psychic factor. In the last instance we have an ex¬ 
hibit of the nature of things in person. Restlessness 
and trial initiative are in person precisely what they 
are in psychic factor prior to the completion of per¬ 
son. But in person, now, there emerges from the 
trial-initiative activities an initiative which is a prod¬ 
uct of conscious self-control and self-direction. This 
is initiation determined by will as a result of experi¬ 
ence. Deliberative initiative is a further value in¬ 
volved in experience. It is one of the factors that 
enable man to control his life and to make progress in 
his personal unfoldment. 

We have said that psychic factor and person put 
forth one activity after another until they settle into 
systems of habituated activity. This settlement in¬ 
dicates a further value involved in experience, to-wit, 
habit. Habit is a result of repetition of activity more 
or less at first “ accidental ” or mechanical, and obey¬ 
ing the law that an object tends to act as it has acted. 
But habit may also be a result of person’s determina¬ 
tion that certain lines of activity shall be continuous. 
An example of habit in the one case is seen in our 
physical structure, in our general mentality, and in 
any unconsciously formed manner of acting. An ex¬ 
ample of the latter case is seen when we determine, 
say, to master a musical instrument, to discipline and 
train the mind, or to pursue any definite line of action. 
This higher order of habit is a further value involved 
in experience. Person has learned through experience 


198 


Creative Personality 


what is likely to result from being and doing thus and 
so, and to initiate activities to continue in the future 
in the interest of its own plans and welfare. 

The restlessness of psychic factor is due to its na¬ 
ture, to the tendency of Reality to express its possibili¬ 
ties, but the action in which this restlessness shall ex¬ 
press itself depends upon the action upon any individ¬ 
ual psychic factor of objects external thereto. So, 
all individual psychic factors try out their possibilities 
and finally form given bodies. So, also, and prior to 
man, psychic factor puts forth activities due to its 
nature and to actions upon it of external existences, 
that have the appearance of intelligence, but which 
are merely manifestations of the nature of things in 
its mechanical workings. Simultaneously with the 
creation by psychic factor of the human body there 
are trial activities, due to the same causes, which 
finally settle into those habits which we call the men¬ 
tal “ faculties,” or the human mind. All of these 
activities, particular and general as habits, are to be 
classified as thought. Every mental action is a 
thought of some sort. We divide the different kinds 
of thought into sensation, sense-perception, memory, 
and so on. Every specific mental action and “ fac¬ 
ulty” is a meaning. Meaning, as we have seen, is 
a relation which psychic factor in person gives to its 
own activities. True intelligence, the “ chooser-be- 
tween,” has now emerged. Reality has now not only 
manifested itself in psychic factor, but has begun to 
know. Knowing is an establishing of relations among 
mental activities. Let us illustrate. It is as if psy- 


Experience 


199 


chic factor, expressing its restlessness and continually 
reacting to actions upon it, were trying to discover 
how to place any of its responses in relation to all its 
other responses, or, how to place any action upon it by 
itself or by external existences in relation to all other 
such actions upon it. The fact which makes know¬ 
ing, meaning, thought, possible is diversity of activi¬ 
ties. Were there but a single activity, or were there 
but one kind of activity, there could be no thought, 
since there could be no relation. If there could be 
but one sensation, for example, as of color, sound, 
contact, order, taste, there could be nothing for com¬ 
parison, and psychic factor in person would not be 
conscious of the sensation as such, and could give the 
sensation no relation, that is, meaning, there would be 
no thought. Knowing, meaning, thought, always sig¬ 
nifies a system of activities which are mutually re¬ 
lated. When we become conscious of any new ac¬ 
tion upon us, we are unable intelligently to respond 
thereto until we can find a place for response among 
other responses to other actions upon us that are al¬ 
ready familiar. Prior to the closing of this struggle 
for placement we can not even think this new thing, 
except in the sense, what is it ? 

Thus, let us observe our use of the sense-organs. 
There are all sorts of external actions upon the or¬ 
gans of sense. Because of these actions, and because 
of the restlessness of psychic factor in person, there 
are all sorts of responses or reactions by the latter. 
Psychic factor,— like a man in a vacant room to 
whom a great variety of unknown objects is brought, 


200 


Creative Personality 


and who now proceeds to sort out these objects ac¬ 
cording to some principle of selection and to arrange 
them in some definite order,— sorts out and arranges 
the innumerable actions upon it of external existences 
and arranges them in the order of sight, hearing, 
smell, taste, touch, and particular kinds of sensation 
and sense-perception. This process of sorting and 
arranging is response or reaction of person to external 
activities, and is knowing, meaning, thought. Simi¬ 
larly, it is enough to say here, with reference to mem¬ 
ory, imagination, reasoning, etc., and with reference 
to all specific mental activities and kinds thereof that 
we develop out of the material furnished by the sense- 
organs. Thus do we have thought, a further value 
involved in experience. All the thought that we have 
once had may be repeated on occasion, and may be 
placed in relation to the idea of the past and of other 
thoughts with reference to the idea of a future for 
our own guidance in the present. 

All thought has a tendency to express itself in 
action, a further value. This is a great mystery. 
Action, in the sense here discussed, is activity of per¬ 
son, either physical or mental. Whatever may be the 
occasion of personal action, its cause is psychic rest¬ 
lessness and what we call will. In what way, or how, 
restlessness and will cause action, we do not know, 
except in the sense that this is an expression of the 
nature of things in person. We know that when oc¬ 
casion arises, mental action follows. We know, also, 
that when occasion arises physical action ensues. 
Some sort of excitation occurs within person, and 


Experience 


201 


mental or physical action begins and goes on. Every 
action which we have put forth may be repeated and 
related to every other action with reference to a past 
and for our guidance in a future. Thus we have and 
profit by experience. 

The development of the classified activities of per¬ 
son is an expression of the nature of things. So, also, 
is the use of experience. Now the essential thing 
requisite to the use of experience is this: we know, 
and we know that we know; but unless we can reflect 
upon this two-fold knowing, and know that we know 
that we know, we can make no directive use of experi¬ 
ence, that is, can not direct our present activities with 
reference to a past and for our interests in a future. 
This knowing that we know that we know is thought, 
but in experience is related to will , and has that re¬ 
lation-meaning. Will is idea — any idea that, exert¬ 
ing an influence upon our knowing that we know that 
we know with reference to a past and for a future, 
insures some kind of action. 

These are the values involved in experience — rest¬ 
lessness, initiative, habit, thought, action, zvill. 
Values that appear because of experience are, speak¬ 
ing generally, of two orders, the individual personal, 
and the universal. In the individual case they emerge 
in the development of person toward best estate. 
What shall it profit a man if he puts forth every 
activity possible to human nature and make no prog¬ 
ress in this direction? This is the whole significance 
and value of experience. In the universal case, the 
value that comes out of experience is the progress 


202 


Creative Personality 


which the Universe through the experience of its sum- 
total person makes toward an ultimate goal in which 
matter shall have served its purpose and universal 
harmony and happiness shall be obtained. What does 
it profit Reality in its vast manifestation in worlds if 
it shall not ultimately unfold its possibilities into per¬ 
fect harmony? 

The goal of worlds must be reached through, first, 
a mechanical manifestation of Reality, or the nature 
of things, until person is achieved, and, secondly, the 
seizure and control by person of such manifestations 
for such personal development as shall call for and 
prophesy external harmonious progress. 

Since the universal consciousness, the universal ex¬ 
perience, the universal progress, are merely sum- 
totals of consciousness, experience and progress, the 
outcome depends upon what every individual person 
shall be and do. This does not mean that any in¬ 
dividual can prevent the outcome, since the outcome 
is an inevitable and infallible expression of the nature 
of things, of Infinite and Eternal Reality. Individual 
person seems slow to realize this majestic truth, and 
many would be disposed to conclude that this teaching 
is a kind of preaching, and is specifically moral or 
religious. The conclusion is incorrect. Morals and 
religions are absolutely incidental to the majestic 
truth that Reality must infinitely and eternally unfold 
itself into universal harmony and happiness. With 
reference to this fact, religion is no more supreme 
than is art, or science, or philosophy, or government. 
It is a certainty that the goal shall be attained, that it 


Experience 


203 


can only be attained through the intelligent use of 
experience, and that every seeming individual person, 
human or otherwise, must and shall contribute to that 
end, or be destroyed and cast aside in the everlasting 
march of the Universe. This brings us to our prac¬ 
tical regimes. 


The Regimes. 

The regimes of/the preceding chapter are all in¬ 
troductory to the following, since all our work makes 
up to the use of experience. The regimes that come 
now overlap the preceding and also refer to experience 
as a value in life. 

Regime of the Free Life. Only the individual per¬ 
son can have his own experience. He is an identical 
manifestation of Reality, and can be no other. The 
life of each person is exclusive, and should be free in 
conduct so long as it does not interfere with the free¬ 
dom of others. You are, therefore, invited to culti¬ 
vate a sense of your own identity, and to place con¬ 
fident reliance upon your own experience and your 
conclusions therefrom. Do not look to the experience 
of others for guidance, except in the way of a reason¬ 
able regard for their opinions. This is very impor¬ 
tant, since it develops confidence in yourself and your 
life. Our talismanic sentence will be: “ I make and 

depend upon my own experience.” 


204 


Creative Personality 


Regime of the Luminous Center. 

(See beginning of chapter.) 

Regime of the Traveler. Since experience means 
“ traveling through ” and “ testing out,” and since both 
mentally and physically we are “ traveling through ” 
and “testing out” Reality in things and thoughts, 
the suggestion now is that you maintain this fact in 
consciousness. The value of this regime will not at 
first appear; the idea will seem vague and unimportant. 
The more we consider the thought, however, the more 
will it take shape and become an inspiration. It is 
by experience that you demonstrate and unfold Real¬ 
ity, and this regime will prove a constant suggestion 
to demonstrate and unfold in your own highest in¬ 
terests. Take this thought, then: “ Always do I fare 
through and absorb Reality for personal develop¬ 
ment.” 

Regime of the Reacting Self. Each person is in¬ 
cessantly acted upon by external existences, and con¬ 
tinuously reacts thereto. The action upon and the re¬ 
action produce many changes in the person, but the 
latter holds over, and does not lose his identity. This 
fact makes experience possible. The abiding person 
remembers his past action and forecasts his future. 
The fact that you abide gives you the power of self¬ 
guidance in the midst of external actions upon you by 
controlling your reactions thereto. In moving about 
physically you attend to what you wish among ob¬ 
jects presented to you by sight, hearing, smell, and 
taste. Thus, in life, we may select from the sensations 


Experience 


205 


objects perceived, and thoughts that arise in minds, 
as we will, and attend to them as experience may sug¬ 
gest. It will be well, then, to make this thought vivid 
in consciousness: “ I abide through all the changes 

of worlds, and I react to existences, not helplessly, 
but as the master of my own conditions.” 

Regime of the Impersonal Outlook. We make 
progress by controlling Reality manifest in ourselves 
and in other objects. For ages man has felt that Na¬ 
ture has been hostile and that the gods must be pla¬ 
cated. Both ideas are totally erroneous. The true 
Deity seeks only to influence man morally and through 
the universal laws of manifest Reality. Manifest 
Reality is neither for nor against man, save as man 
makes it so, and to the limit of the power which he 
has developed within himself, man may control Real¬ 
ity or the nature of things as perfectly as he might 
control a piece of machinery. This power and con¬ 
trol he more and more acquires through experience. 
You are urged, therefore, to forever put aside the com¬ 
mon habit of thought that Deity is ever in the slight¬ 
est degree against you or “ down on you.” You are 
also urged to cease personalizing Nature, to cease im¬ 
agining that Nature or Reality has any intentions 
whatever concerning you. And you are urged that 
all things, laws, principles, and forces are your in¬ 
struments for progress, which you may utilize, avoid 
or control through experience for your own best de¬ 
velopment and success. Our inspirational sentence 
will be, “ I fearlessly use the nature of things in my 
behalf.” 


206 


Creative Personality 


Regime of Practical Reasoning. We have seen that 
person standardizes utility, that nothing is useful in 
this world save as it can be related to human prog¬ 
ress. It will prove beneficial for your experience, 
then, to make a general study of things about you with 
the question in view, What would be the utility of 
such and such objects, laws, forces, principles, were 
there no human being on the earth? Also this, What 
is the value of this or that when it has no relation to 
person whatever ? Such a study will enhance the 
valuation which you place upon yourself, and will 
tend to eliminate from your thought the personifying 
of Nature and very much of imaginary and poetical 
utility supposed to exist in the Nature apart from 
man. It will also enable you to see that the utility 
of things, laws and forces in your life depends ab¬ 
solutely upon the relation which you give them to 
your personal progress. 

Regime of the Personal Climax. Since the mechan¬ 
ism of the nature of things finally manifests Reality 
in psychic factor, and then goes on to create person, 
which, as a whole, possesses self-control, we see that 
person climaxes all events leading up to it. This gives 
person the double significance of superiority and of 
development. Two suggestions follow: Cultivate to 
the utmost the thought that you are superior and su¬ 
preme in the world of material things and forces; 
Resolve to justify your existence by making the most 
of its possibilities. You are a phase of Reality and 
a part of the Universe, but you are a self-directing 
and self-controlling power. As person, you are not 


Experience 


20 7 


a by-product, but are a main thing, no matter who or 
what you may be. Do not belittle yourself, but affirm 
until you are thoroughly saturated with the thought, 
“ I climax the process of world-coming, and I make 
good that fact.” 

Regime of Moral Attitudes. In the thought of this 
book each human person is, as concerns its origin, a 
manifest of Reality which is independent of Deity. 
We are, however, subject to Deific moral influences. 
Aside from all religion, and purely as a matter of self- 
interest, each person is called upon to reverence Deity 
as the infinitely Perfect, and to give due heed to its 
influences so far as they are unquestionably evident to 
unbiased personal reason. You are invited to make 
thes'e obligations a life-long regime, since thus only 
can you realize that harmony of being which signifies 
happiness. This is untellably important to you, and 
should constitute a perfect religion requiring abso¬ 
lutely no other item. 

Regime of the Harmonious Life. Experience 
teaches that personal welfare is impossible save as 
harmony is sought within person and with external 
existences. You are, therefore, invited to undertake 
and carry on this task of internal and external har¬ 
mony. Nothing could be more difficult. Nothing 
could have greater utility. Seek this harmony among 
all the physical functions of your body: that will try 
your will to the utmost, but is indepensable to wel¬ 
fare. Seek harmony among all your mental functions 
according to the standard of a mind that is growing 
and coming to mastery: that also is difficult and in- 


208 


Creative Personality 


dispensable. Seek harmony between yourself and all 
other, persons: remember that love, which declares 
welfare for every human being, is as essential to you 
as breathing, and that the difficulty of such love is com¬ 
pensated by the immense power which it signifies. 
The potency of love does not spring from religion; 
it expresses the nature of things, and is absolutely su¬ 
preme in our Universe. Love is a force which con¬ 
trols all existences for harmony, and has what we 
may call a mechanical action greater than that of 
gravity, magnetism or electricity. Use this force in 
your own interests. 

If you stand for harmony through love, you stand 
for your supreme right — Happiness. Observe, that 
happiness is not a privilege, not a thing to be begged: 
it is an inalienable right, and is a state which every 
human may imperiously demand. But the demand 
can be realized only according to the degree of your 
internal and external harmony. Do not think your¬ 
self “ lucky ” when happy; think of yourself then as 
having lawfully achieved a measure of your right. 
Distinguish between mere pleasure, upon which you 
can not feed forever, and happiness, which can never 
become stale, and then insist upon your own happi¬ 
ness regardless of all other existences. If your happi¬ 
ness is true, you will rob no one, but will assist others. 

Regime of the Insistent Person. The notion that 
there is some universal Being or State of Conscious¬ 
ness, in which we are to lose ourselves at some future 
stage of our existence, thus attaining some mysteri¬ 
ous universal happiness, is wholly unphilosophical. A 


Experience 


209 


cycle of manifestations, beginning with indeterminate 
Reality, passing into worlds of matter and person, 
and finally returning to indeterminate Reality, can 
have no meaning and justification. Why should 
Brahma, Deity or Reality give birth to person, only 
to swallow up personal consciousness in unconscious¬ 
ness, or in a state of some mysterious universal con¬ 
sciousness? We have seen that person manifests 
Reality, and that personal unfoldment to the utmost 
is the only possible justification of such manifestation. 
Once person is achieved, the preservation of its 
identity, so long as it unfolds toward harmony, is in¬ 
fallibly insured. Seek no comfort in and dream no 
dreams of, annihilation. Neither fear the loss of your 
personality in any bog of philosophy or religion, but 
manfully and heroically stand for yourself as a person, 
and anticipate a marvelous future of full, rich and 
powerful self-consciousness which shall be yours for¬ 
ever. 

Regime of History-Making. The majority of peo¬ 
ple assume that they have little if any part in the 
making of history. They have experiences, but they 
imagine that such experiences are done for as soon as 
had, and are like water poured upon sand. All this 
is negative thinking and is untrue. No matter who 
or what you may be, you are contributing to the his¬ 
tory of the Universe. Every activity within your 
body and of its members, every activity of your sense- 
organs, every mental activity, affects in some way the 
sum-total matter of the Universe, its sum-total of 
thought and every other existing person. This is 


210 


Creative Personality 


making history. It is, therefore, suggested that you 
remember this fact and observe its practical relation 
to your own welfare. You impress yourself upon 
matter about you, upon the unseen world of thought 
around you, and upon all other persons: so live that 
the inevitable reaction of matter, thought and all per¬ 
sons shall run in the direction of your own welfare. 
What we call general history is composed of particular 
histories and has a direct bearing and influence upon 
the latter. You are invited to handle the mutuality 
of life with reference to your own unfoldment, suc¬ 
cess and happiness. And you are urged to assume the 
importance of yourself and the history you are mak¬ 
ing. 

Regime of Mental Conquest. We believe that the 
existence of person is continuous, whatever event may 
occur in the latter’s history, and that, therefore, ex¬ 
perience goes on in the individual career after death. 
Since there are no limits to the power of person as 
person, we believe that it is a possibility to conquer 
death, and so, disease, on the earth, and that a time 
will come when “ there shall be no more death, neither 
sickness,” in this world. The conditions of our planet 
may become such in the far future that this possi¬ 
bility may be off-set. Meanwhile, the supremacy of 
thought in person may anticipate such a universal 
catastrophe by actually overcoming physical death 
long before the catastrophe shall have occurred. The 
significance of our belief is this. The fact that man 
is so supreme in his thought, in the sense of his pos¬ 
sibilities, that he may ultimately conquer disease and 


Experience 


211 


death, raises the conclusion that person can gain noth¬ 
ing vital and important by passing through the experi¬ 
ences of disease and death. In the philosophy that 
is broader than Christian Science is this conclusion 
suggested. It is a singular fact that many people 
come to the habituated idea not only that they must 
die, but also that certain welfare and happiness can 
only be attained through the experience of death. 
This we believe to be an error, and you are, for that 
reason, invited as follows: 

Always to maintain the thought, “ I am the master 
of my physical conditions/’ You may not succeed in 
attaining the ideal of this assertion, but it will prove 
to be immensely beneficial to you, and will also be 
your contribution to universal disease-conquering 
thought. 

Always maintain the spirit of opposition to human 
death. Affirm, “ I am totally an enemy to hu¬ 
man death; I fight this enemy with every power of my 
being.” Here, again, the ideal is remote, but the 
thought is potent for your good and a contribution to 
the universal death-conquering thought. 

Always seek to detach your mind, imagination, an¬ 
ticipation from any heavenly world or stage of exist¬ 
ence hereafter. Do not live with the expectation of 
gaining values or welfare through the experience of 
death. This attitude divides our thought between this 
world and another, and by so much weakens the 
thought which we give to the present life. By such 
attitude we create a mental other-world which tends 
to draw up into itself, as it were, our physical and 


212 


Creative Personality 


mental strength. You are invited wholly to disregard 
that other-world, and to concentrate your energies 
upon the present world in all known ways that make 
for universal harmony. And you are especially urged 
to remember that you possess the power to gain all 
things desirable as well independently of death as 
through that experience. 

Regimes of Experience. 

We divide the regimes that follow into two sets: 
Regimes of the Elements, and Regimes of the Outcome 
Values. 

1. Regimes of the Elements. Since you are in¬ 
cessantly acted upon by external objects and forces, 
you are invited to give these actions greater and more 
intelligent attention. This means the cultivation of 
a habit of observation. It is astonishing that we know 
so little of objects, activities and persons surrounding 
us. The consequence is that we frequently find our¬ 
selves lacking in a knowledge essential to correct 
experience and to correct conclusions therefrom. 
Oftentimes, when it is necessary to make use of ex¬ 
perience, we are compelled to say, “ I did not observe.” 
There is no kind of work or life in which it is not in¬ 
dispensable that we take due notice of the action 
upon us of things, forces and people. Thus does an 
abstract element of human study prove to be of down¬ 
right practical value. 

Since you are incessantly reacting to external ac¬ 
tions, that is, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, 
thinking, and putting forth physical activities, you are 


Experience 


213 


invited to bring all these actions under the control of 
intelligence and will and to observe what you are 
doing in the interest of memory and your future con¬ 
duct. These reactions are elements of the experience 
which you are now having, and will be important to 
your experience in the future. 

You are invited to cultivate a consciousness of ex¬ 
ternal actions upon you as proceeding from a That 
which is not ourself. This will intensify our sense 
of personal identity in relation to the world about you, 
and will develop a feeling that you are reacting to that 
world intelligently for your own unfoldment. 

You are invited to cultivate a consciousness that 
your reactions are your own responses to external ac¬ 
tions, and that, therefore, they are subject to your own 
control. This will develop a sense of independence 
and will, and give you the feeling that the world is 
cooperating with you for your personal unfoldment. 

You are invited to remember that your past is sim¬ 
ply your thought of your previous actions and ex¬ 
ternal actions upon you, and that such previous ac¬ 
tions upon you and your reactions thereto have been 
more or less what you have made them to be. Pre¬ 
ceding regimes here will tend to develop memory, 
and the present will give you a sense of responsibility 
for right control of actions and reactions in the in¬ 
terest of any future. 

You are invited to examine your memory of your 
past for discovery of mistakes and successes, and to 
make the results controlling factors in your present. 
Your past has no meaning or value except with refer- 


214 


Creative Personality 


ence to the present and a future. This abstract ele¬ 
ment in human study means, then, that we prove our¬ 
selves intelligent enough to “ learn by experience.” 

You are invited to remember that you are “ faring 
through ” Reality and worlds, the latter acting upon 
you and inducing your reactions. The practical ques¬ 
tion is, How are you to come out? You are like a 
man in a canoe making his way up stream. The cur¬ 
rent acts upon him, and his reacting effort guides him 
here and there, thus making progress toward a goal. 
You always live in the present, but your power con¬ 
sciously to repeat your previous actions, and the sug¬ 
gestions of your experience, enable you, like the man 
in the canoe, to steer your way toward a definite goal 
day by day. All this means that you hold the idea 
of a specific end to be attained in a future, an hour, a 
day, a month, or years. Do not drift, since this is 
imbecile, insures no progress, and is destructive of 
mental wholeness and ability. Always remember the 
end you are seeking, and never sacrifice the end to 
any immediate impulse or desire. 

2. Regimes of the Outcome-Values. The outcome 
values of experience are yours only, in an intelligent 
sense, as you make them so. The suggestions that 
follow are intended to insure action in that direction. 

You are invited to remember that your restlessness 
is not merely a matter of temperament, but is a natural 
expression of psychic factor. This restlessness should 
never be suppressed; it should always be controlled and 
guided. The control and guidance of restlessness are 
secured by will, under the teachings of experience. 


Experience 


215 


Let your nature run free in its activities, since sup¬ 
pression tends to destroy your power, but apply ex¬ 
perience to its management. The wooden-shoe life 
achieves nothing. Nevertheless, we do not allow loco¬ 
motives to run wild. 

Make the natural trial-initiative of your human 
nature count by utilizing it for intelligent living. 
Your mind is always moving around in curiosity and 
in order to discover the best thing to do. You are in¬ 
vited to develop, train and control this tendency in the 
interest of knowledge, skill, power and welfare. Do 
not allow life and external existences to beat you 
down, but initiate your way through them with definite 
purposes. Do not take the way that is easiest or most 
comfortable; take the way which you believe to be 
best for you, and trust your own convictions. You 
are also invited to test your power of initiative in 
various manners. Invent something. Do something 
new and different. Get out of beaten roads. Be a 
pioneer in some direction, for some undeveloped value. 
By following this method you will form new habits, 
and continue to employ your initiative power for fur¬ 
ther advancement. 

Habit is a settled way of acting, physically or men¬ 
tally. Its great value is this, we carry on certain ac¬ 
tivities automatically, so to speak, free from the labor 
of directly conscious control. It is by habit and initia¬ 
tive that we make progress. Initiative develops new 
actions, and habit settles them. But some habits are 
not admirable. In such cases the nature of things set¬ 
tles into ways of being and doing which do not con- 


216 


Creative Personality 


tribute to personal welfare. Moreover, many habits 
are formed unconsciously. It is, therefore, suggested 
that you bring your habits under control in the in¬ 
terest of physical and mental power and facility. 
The skilled artisan and the educated man illustrate 
habits of the latter order. They have a wide range 
of ability and great facility in handling themselves. 
Thus their experience counts for the best. You are 
invited to be the master of your habits in the sense 
that you form and use them in your own interest and 
make them servants, and give yourself freedom for 
your initiative ability. Thus you utilize the nature 
of things in person, guide its expressions in your self 
and life, and compel it to forge ahead for your un- 
foldment and success. 

You are invited so to act in the present that, when 
this shall become a past, that past shall surely serve 
experience for a satisfactory future. Observe that in 
all these regimes we are dealing strictly with the prac¬ 
tical life. Your actions to-day constitute the ele¬ 
ments which will be your past to-morrow. When they 
become those elements they simply raise the idea, Past. 
They may be repeated or omitted, but the repetition 
and the omission will be associated with that idea, Past. 
You are invited to investigate the meaning of the idea. 
My Past, and to note how it involves identity, ac¬ 
tions upon you and reactions thereto,— innumerable 
activities,— a present which always seems to become 
and to cease, and the idea, My Future, and also to note 
the mental pictures and recalls that occur as you pro¬ 
ceed with the investigation. Your discoveries will sur- 


Experience 


21 7 


prise you. Always it has been your identical self 
making presents, having experiences. How have you 
come through, how have you arrived where you are? 
It seems as though you were unwinding a very long 
roll of paper bearing reading matter and pictures, 
as you think backward, but you see that if you place 
yourself in thought at the beginning and live in a series 
of presents, it will now seem as if the roll were wind¬ 
ing up and coming from some unseen source and con¬ 
taining only a very little of visible printed matter. 
This printed matter is your present. Your past is 
the printed matter upon the wound roll. Your future 
is the invisible paper upon which no writing has been 
made. The present is always coming into view and 
always disappearing. Now, your present conscious¬ 
ness is a set of ideas, and your past and your future 
are ideas associated with that set. As you study all 
these ideas you find the factors of experience. You 
are invited, therefore, to live with this thought as a 
mentor, teacher, wamer, inspirer, “ I associate my 
Present with my Past for my Future, and my Experi¬ 
ence is the greatest Friend I possess.” 

The method by which the above regimes of experi¬ 
ence are made practical consist in putting into their 
study and use intense and persistent thought. Do not 
content yourself merely with reading them. They 
may at times seem commonplace; they may also appear 
to be abstruse and difficult. By so much as you think 
yourself into them, by so much will their meaning and 
scope become more and more apparent. They will 
then prove suggestive of further thought and of action 


218 


Creative Personality 


in conformity with them. Only by intelligence and 
persistent thinking can we ever hope to make intelli¬ 
gent and valuable experience and utilize it for the best 
results to person. 


LAW: Growth Is the Formation of New 
Habits for Perfection of Life. 


CHAPTER VI. 


LAWS OF GROWTH. 



HE human self grows in one or the other of 


two general directions; either toward best 


estate or toward the worst estate; either to¬ 


ward fulness of harmoniously individualized personal 
being, or toward fulness of disharmoniously individ¬ 
ualized personal being. 

These words are deliberately selected. Best hu¬ 
man estate is fulness of harmoniously individualized 
personal being. The worst possible human condition 
is disharmoniously individualized personal being. 

Both estates express the nature of things according 
to universal laws. That is to say, the Fundamental 
Reality works through the individual in certain ways 
which we interpret as laws, and it is this Reality that 
expresses in one or the other of the two estates named. 

The criterion by which we may know whether we 
are growing “ or the right way or the wrong way” 
is found in happiness. Observe: the criterion is not 
pleasure, which is superficial and ephemeral. The 
criterion is happiness, which is deep and abiding. 
Any degree of growth toward fulness of harmoniously 
individualized personal being involves a correspond¬ 
ing degree of happiness. Any degree of growth in 


220 


Creative Personality 


the opposite direction involves a degree of unhappi¬ 
ness. Some forms of pleasure make for happiness, 
and some forms make for unhappiness. The criterion 
here, then, is again happiness. 

The Fundamental Reality unfolds in individual 
growth whatever the latter’s direction. Reality ex¬ 
presses in all human conditions. But happiness repre¬ 
sents the highest possible individual development, 
hence the most conservative unfoldment of Reality. 

The reasons for the fact that Reality unfolds to¬ 
ward the worst estate in the individual are two: 
First, Reality “ creates ” the individual according to 
universal laws, and proceeds in individual growth in 
universal ways (laws), but proceeds in harmony with 
the individual will and thought — within the limits of 
its own nature as expressed in the individual. A hu¬ 
man must always remain a human, but thought and will 
are immeasurably potent within this field. Thought 
and will, therefore, may induce undesirable expres¬ 
sions in human growth. Second, individuals follow 
ideas of pleasure rather than ideas of happiness, or 
ideas of pleasure regardless of happiness, and thus 
compel Reality to express in growth toward dishar¬ 
monious personal being. 

There is one final test by which we may determine 
whether growth tends toward happiness or unhappi¬ 
ness, that is, toward best or worst estate. This test 
is experience. Individual conduct, sacred books and 
human history, are all subjected to this one test. 
Tested by experience, whatever kind or degree of 
growth makes for happiness is desirable, and all 


Laws of Growth 


221 


growth in the opposite direction is undesirable. Thus 
does the Fundamental Reality declare for fulness of 
harmoniously individualized personal being. 

Growth Defined. 

Individual human growth may be defined with re¬ 
gard to two points of view: The Conscious Personal 
Life, and the Fundamental Reality. 

1. Growth Defined from the Viewpoint of the 
Conscious Personal Life. Growth is the formation of 
new habits for perfection of being. Perfection of 
being insures fulness of harmonious life. By “ be¬ 
ing ” is meant individualized Reality in any human — 
yourself. By “ perfection ” is intended that human 
state which expresses itself in happiness or unhappi¬ 
ness. By “ habit ” is meant established ways of act¬ 
ing. By “ new habits ” is meant establishment of new 
activities, or new establishments of old activities. By 
so much as we form new habits in the personal life, by 
so much do we grow, either toward best estate or away 
therefrom. 

2. Growth Defined from the Viewpoint of the 
Fundamental Reality. Individual human growth is 
the unfoldment of the Fundamental Reality in the 
human self, body, mind, by compulsion of thought and 
will according to universal laws. The Reality goes 
into every phase of the growth, that is, more and more 
individualizes itself in all phases of human growth. 
Such growth is not apart from it, but is of it. In 
each particular phase of growth the Reality takes 
form, so to speak. This “ form/’ however, is deter- 


222 


Creative Personality 


mined by the thought and will of its human controller 
— within the limits set for or by his individual 
humanness. 

We now proceed to indicate some of the laws of 
human growth, that is, ways that growth seems to 
have of coming on and manifesting itself. 

First Law of Growth. 

Our definition of growth as the formation of new 
habits for perfection of being indicates a law. 

The formation of new habits acts as suggestion to 
the self and to the Fundamental Reality in the self, 
which suggestion brings into operation the universal 
lazvs of growth. The new habits, when formed, con¬ 
stitute the elements of growth. The suggestion acts, 
within the limits of the self and the Fundamental 
Reality expressed therein, and so, the simple fact that 
the individual is a human tends to suggest habits which 
induce the action of universal laws in general body¬ 
building and mind-building. Within such operations 
the formation of new habits suggests modifications and 
particular constructive work. The formation of new 
habits may be indicated as follows: 

First, in Body-Building. The two human germ- 
cells combine, and this fact signifies “ a human self ” 
to be unfolded, and “ a human body ” and " a mind ” 
to be built up. The Fundamental Reality in the germ- 
cells intelligently obeys the suggestion and proceeds 
to unfold in the child — to individualize in the child. 
The physical and psychic character of the germ-cells 
also acts as suggestion, and the self and body of the 


Laws of Growth 


223 


child are modified accordingly. The two-fold process 
involves continuously the formation of new habits. 
Thus the individual grows to the time of birth. At 
this point the sense of “ humanness ” and “ individ¬ 
uality ” rapidly intensifies and becomes personally 
conscious, so that new habits, under the general sug¬ 
gestion of “ humanness ” and “ individuality,” are in 
process of perpetual formation, thus inducing sugges¬ 
tions to the self and Reality which determine develop¬ 
ment and modifications of growth. Thus comes 
growth of bodies, and particularities of bodies, human 
minds and individual minds. 

To be more specific: the intelligence of Reality in 
the germ-cells obeys the suggestion of their union that 
a human individual be developed. Immediately mat¬ 
ter begins a long series of new habits of its chemical 
elements. The elements involved in the natural body- 
history are Hydrogen, Sodium, Potassium, Mag¬ 
nesium, Calcium, Carbon, Silicon, Nitrogen, Phos¬ 
phorus, Oxygen, Sulphur, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iron. 
In the animal body these elements form combinations 
which do not occur elsewhere, in the sense of exhibit¬ 
ing life and of building physical organs. We have, 
then, matter assuming several new habits. The old 
habits of the chemical elements are now the new habits 
of life. Whether life is a distinct force-entity or 
merely a chemical activity, we do not know. From 
the viewpoint of this book the question is immaterial, 
since we hold that matter and chemical activities are 
all functions of the Fundamental Reality. We ob¬ 
serve, however, on this subject as follows* 


224 


Creative Personality 


Only the elements named, in just the right propor¬ 
tions, under just the right conditions, exhibit the phe¬ 
nomena of life. It does not follow that, because life 
involves certain chemical elements, the activity of the 
latter constitutes life. The chemical activity may pro¬ 
duce a new entity — life. Life is a phenomenon re¬ 
sulting from chemical activity. That the phenome¬ 
non is nothing other than a manifestation, having no 
actuality save that of the chemical activity, is abso¬ 
lutely unproven. The “ production of life ” in the 
chemical laboratory merely demonstrates that life has 
its own way and its own conditions of appearing. 
The conclusion still holds good: life in itself, as an 
entity, may logically be distinguished from the chem¬ 
ical activity which produces it. 

The chemical elements involved in the human body 
exhibit the new habit of life. This habit associates 
with itself various other new habit-formations. We 
see such in the chemical compounds that make up the 
substance of the animal body: muscle, nerve, bone, 
blood, other fluids, etc. We see the formation of 
new habits in the construction of all the internal or¬ 
gans and external members of the body. We see mat¬ 
ter taking new establishments in the processes of di¬ 
gestion of food and the distribution of nutriment 
throughout the system. We see a complex series of 
adjustments — continuously new for the chemical ele¬ 
ments and their compounds — in the maintenance and 
development of the physical structure. Finally, vari¬ 
ous changes, which occur more or less constantly in 
the body, due to all sorts of causes, together with mod- 


Laws of Growth 


225 


ifications in environment and adjustments thereto, 
exhibit the same proposition, formation of new habits, 
both in matter’s activities and in those of the body and 
its organs. These habits constitute growth, in the 
many senses and particulars indicated. 

The human body is also a personal affair, and 
its growth into individuality and various conditions 
thereof reveals the same process of habit-formation. 
The continuous acts which constitute the habits of the 
individual in his physical life suggest to the self and 
Reality responses which appear in individuality of 
body, body-differences and specific uses of its mem¬ 
bers. The continuation of these acts intensifies the 
suggestions, and the habits grow more and more con¬ 
firmed. The outcome is growth of physiological and 
physical peculiarities and the general physical life in 
the directions indicated by the habits. 

Second, in Mind-Building. The intelligence of the 
Fundamental Reality carries in the two germ-cells the 
suggestion, “a human mind.” This suggestion oper¬ 
ates in the cell which results from their union, so that 
the self, in its earliest existence, begins the general 
habit of responding to its environment. The first 
response is simple sensation, and, at some point in the 
history, a more specific reaction takes place in sense- 
perception. In these responses to environment the 
self is simply forming habits of acting in the given 
ways, and the habits measure the growth of mind. 
Thence on, we see the self reacting through the senses 
to the outer world, that is, interpreting, in established 
ways, the action of that world upon it through the 


226 


Creative Personality 


senses. Such ways, including sensation and sense- 
perception, are seen in memory, imagination, atten¬ 
tion, consciousness, will, etc. In this manner the mind 
comes to be a mind, and to develop as such. Sim¬ 
ilarly constitutional mental characteristics come about, 
through peculiar uses, or lack of use, of the abilities 
of the self in the field of mind. Traits that are ac¬ 
quired rather than constitutional appear as the result 
of mind-habits forming in the individual life. Finally, 
the mind grows in the sense of enlarging and varying 
its body of thought, in its capacity and power, in its 
activities and sensibility to the great world within and 
without. In all this outcome we see the continuous 
new formation of old habits into new operations or 
the continuous formation of new habits by fresh 
mental developments. The outcome is growth in a 
two-fold sense: the mind as human, and the mind as 
individual. These considerations suggest a general 
life-regime. 

General Life-Regime. Since life is growth of some 
sort, you are invited to resolve on growth always 
toward best estate, and daily to carry the thought, “ I 
demand a conscious awakening of all my highest pow¬ 
ers.” The idea here is suggestion to the self continu¬ 
ously to form new habits for personal development. 
You thus stimulate the self to automatic unfoldment. 

The Second Law of Growth. 

Our definition of growth as the unfoldment of the 
Fundamental Reality in the human self, body, mind, 
by compulsion of thought and will, according to uni- 


Laws of Growth 


227 


versal laws, indicates a second law of the processes, 
which may be outlined as follows: 

The Fundamental Reality is the Ground and Source 
of all existences. It is the infinite and eternal Orig¬ 
inator in itself of worlds, Deity and finite personali¬ 
ties. It manifests in every kind of being. Deity, 
each object in Nature, and each human individual is 
manifestation of the Fundamental Reality. These 
existences are individualizations of its essence or 
Nature. As such, they are distinct and separate from 
each other. The Reality expresses itself — manifests 
its Nature — in universal, unchanging ways which we 
would call laws. The laws are not imposed upon it; 
they are simply its ways of being and doing. Growth, 
therefore, is determined by the kind of existence in 
which it occurs. In Nature this growth is according 
to law and mechanical in the sense that its conditions 
are always set for it. Things can not be other than 
what they are under given conditions, and things never 
determine or control their own conditions. In human 
life growth is according to law and mechanical in the 
sense that it always obtains when conditions are set 
for it, but is subject to the individual’s control of the 
Reality through a more or less free choice of ends and 
means. Human beings can not be other than what 
they are under their given conditions, but they may 
always modify and sometimes may wholly change con¬ 
ditions within the limits of their humanness. In the 
world without man Reality simply and invariably man¬ 
ifests its own Nature — obeys nothing but itself. In 
the world with man, Reality follows its own Nature, 


228 


Creative Personality 


but modifies its manifestations more or less in obedi¬ 
ence to the human will. In man, because he is an 
individualization of the Reality, the latter puts its uni¬ 
versal ways of being and doing at the individual’s 
" disposal,” so to speak. That is to say, Reality indi¬ 
vidualizes in the human, and this fact carries a lim- 
itedly free will into the individual, which it is the very 
nature of Reality to obey through its universal activ¬ 
ities. 

Formations of habit, which are always accom¬ 
panied or preceded by some degree and kind of 
thought, or, establishments of activities, constitute sug¬ 
gestions to the intelligence, which it is its Nature to 
obey. The ancestral suggestion, “ a human individ¬ 
ual,” precedes the union of the germ-cells, and carries 
into the one cell resulting. Reality brings to bear 
upon that cell the whole of its universal ways of being 
and doing as required. This process constitutes an 
unfolding of the Reality in the individual. Always 
thereafter, the entire essence of Reality called for by 
the suggestions of the individual life “ wells up ” into 
self, body, mind. This is true in whatever direction 
the individual grows. Reality expresses in us accord¬ 
ing to the formation of our habits because it is its 
Nature to follow the suggestions of our lives. It is 
the Nature of Reality to follow the suggestions of 
our lives because we are as individuals its manifesta¬ 
tions endowed by the fact with the power thus to con¬ 
trol its unfoldment in us. The Reality is always the 
same, and does not grow, since it is the Infinite and 
Eternal, but the individual does grow as the Reality 


Laws of Growth 229 

more and more expresses in the self and its mind and 
body. 


The Third Law of Growth. 

Our third law of growth may thus be stated: All 
individual human growth proceeds from within. This 
proposition would seem to follow from the discussion 
just closed, but the processes constituting the law 
should be indicated in detail. Reality expresses in the 
self, and unfolds through the growth of the self. The 
self expresses in body and mind and unfolds through 
physical and mental growth. The Reality is in the 
self, in the mind, in the body — and in the Not-self, 
which is the Universe. The Not-self constitutes the 
environment of the self. The environment — the 
Universe which is a manifest of Reality — furnishes 
the material upon which the individual grows. This 
material consists of various manifestations of Reality 
external to the self but absorbed by the self by reason 
of the unfolding of the Reality in the self. The 
mother’s body and self and mind comprise the environ¬ 
ment of the child prior to birth, from which the child 
absorbs the elements of its growth because Reality has 
this manner of unfolding in the child at this pre-natal 
period. Thereafter the world must take the place of 
the mother’s body, mind and self. 

When the action of maternal environment upon the 
germ-cells and the forming child has reached its cli¬ 
max, the external world begins raining upon the 
human a vast host of activities assailing the body, and 
through the sense-organs, the self. As, prior to birth, 


230 


Creative Personality 


Reality in the child responded or reacted to the action 
of the mother-environment, thus insuring growth, so 
now, after birth, the same Reality reacts to the action 
upon the individual of world-environment, and thus 
carries on the process of growth. The material of 
growth comes from without, but the assimilation of 
that material is an inner process. This fact is sig¬ 
nificant. 

Reality in the Not-self must act upon the self in 
order that the latter may draw Reality into the process 
of growth. Reality may express itself in non-living 
forms directly; otherwise no such form could have 
first appeared. But it is law that, in the living world, 
growth is the outcome of action of environment upon 
the living individual. Reality here expresses itself 
only on stimulation from some external manifestation 
of itself. The human individual begins to be by 
reason of the action of Reality upon the given mani¬ 
fest of Reality. And the human grows according to 
his reaction to the Reality by which he is environed. 

Some action of the world upon the self always ob¬ 
tains. Similarly, some reaction of the self to the Not- 
self always follows. But the self, as already indi¬ 
cated, may more or less determine what its own reac¬ 
tions may be — within the limits of its individual 
humanness. Further details of the reaction will now 
appear. 

Physical reactions appear in the formation of chem¬ 
ical, physiological and physical habits. Such habits 
constitute growth. The habits are not imposed from 
without; they spring up within. The growth is an 


Laws of Growth 231 

issue of the reactions of the self to the Not-self draw¬ 
ing up into the self the Fundamental Reality. 

Reality exists in the self, and the self exists im¬ 
mersed in Reality. In its being, the self always con¬ 
fronts and is backgrounded by the Reality. The self 
in its entire personality individualizes the Reality. 
The Reality first emerges, probably in the psychic self 
in what is now called the subconscious. This is the 
pre-mental self. The Reality issues “ up,” so to 
speak, into the activities designated as mind, manifest¬ 
ing the subconscious and then the conscious phases of 
the individual. True consciousness can only occur 
through mental activities — activities of the self in 
knowing as the self. For this reason, self-conscious¬ 
ness is consciousness in self-knowing. All of the ac¬ 
tivities involved are reactions to the action of Reality- 
environment upon the self. The self knows itself and 
an external world through its own activities, but the 
latter obtain only as they are stimulated by action 
from without. Similarly with every other mental ac¬ 
tivity. The growing process takes place wholly within 
the self. There is no growth of mind without reac¬ 
tion to external Reality. 

Apparently obvious as this proposition appears, its 
importance now emerges. Physical growth is not ex¬ 
pected to come from sources external to the body. 
The body reacts to the food elements introduced. 
The individual must take his food and must digest and 
assimilate it. So, also, must the self react upon the 
external world of the senses and the mind, by taking 
in that which is ready to hand, selecting and assim- 


232 


Creative Personality 


ilating the elements provided. The world which we 
see, hear, smell, touch, taste, is an inner world, entirely 
and absolutely. That is, we apprehend external 
manifestations of Reality by reacting to its action 
upon and through the sense-organs, and the appre¬ 
hending is an act of the self in mind. The objects 
apprehended do not enter the self, nor does the self 
go out to the objects, but the self, remaining where 
it is, is acted upon through the stimulation of the 
sense-organs and reacts to that action in the various 
interpretations of its sensations and sense-perceptions 
and inner thoughts. As in the sphere of body-life, so 
in the sphere of mind-life: nothing becomes our own 
until we have made it our own by reacting to it. In 
the simple matters of hearing, seeing, smelling, tast¬ 
ing, touching, when we apparently apprehend what is 
forced upon us, our reactions are always more or less 
peculiarly individual, differing from the reactions of 
others to the same thing, so that the fact that our 
senses are stimulated whether or no is modified by 
the fact that the results of such stimulations are de¬ 
termined by the character of our minds and mental 
life. This determination is both a result of growth 
and a contributor to growth, under the law of habit. 
What the self shall do with the materials furnished by 
the sense-actions is altogether an interior matter. 
Whether it shall sense-live in the external world, 
or thought-live in the unseen world, whether it 
shall attend, select, assimilate, reconstruct, fashion 
into new forms, work into its existing “ body 
of thought,” and whether it shall strengthen itself 


Laws of Growth 


233 


by better and more varied activities, truer inter¬ 
pretations, and greater aspirations — whether it 
shall control and direct the action upon it of the 
Fundamental Reality as the Not-self and the unfold¬ 
ing of that Reality in its own individuality — 
all these matters are for the self to decide. As it de¬ 
cides, so comes growth, be that desirable or undesir¬ 
able. And in every particular, growth is always from 
within. Reality unfolds in the self only as the self 
is acted upon by the Not-Self-Reality, and reacts 
thereto, weakly and involuntarily, or voluntarily and 
masterfully. 

The proposition becomes now a guaranty. Since 
growth proceeds from within the self, which is an in¬ 
dividualization of Reality, and therefore contains the 
freedom of Reality thus individualized, the self has 
the whole of the Infinite and Eternal at its command 
within the necessary limits of individual humanness. 
The Not-self can not crush the self, for all Reality is 
in essence and nature one and is in the self no less 
than the Not-self, and so is subject to the self i For 
the same reasons, the kind or direction of growth falls 
within the individual's control. All these facts give 
each human a standing in the Universe and guarantee 
to him the rights and privileges of every existence 
throughout the realms of being. 

The withinness of growth is especially significant 
for the mental life. The individual life is grounded 
in an Infinite and Eternal Reality which “ contains ” 
within itself all the elements of perfectly developed 
human personality. The subconscious self, the pri- 


234 


Creative Personality 


mary manifestation in us of the Reality, is therefore 
backed by infinity and eternity. “ He hath put eter¬ 
nity in their hearts.” Thus is given the human 
limitless power and metaphysical superiority over time 
and space. Not only does consciousness here come to 
enormous dignity, but the human gets a meaning, a 
value and a complex of abilities as marvelous as they 
are actual, and as actual as they are marvelous. This 
fact will be seen in the next great law. 

Regime. The high ground we have now reached 
indicates best thought and control for the self. You 
are invited to make these thoughts permanent in the 
subconscious mind: “ I react to the external world 

only in ways that make for my best interest; the Uni¬ 
verse, not this home or town in which I live, is my 
field of development; all things are mine for personal 
growth; the Infinite Life is my servant; since I am 
Infinite Life, my growth cannot be limited by space 
and time.” 


The Fourth Law of Growth. 

This law climaxes from three wonderful facts. 

The first Fact is that the Universe and all it contains 
is grounded in Infinite and Eternal Reality — One, 
identical throughout with itself and constituting the 
sole reason for its own existence. 

The second Fact is that the Universe and every 
object and individual within it are manifests, each for 
itself, of this Infinite and Eternal Reality. 

The third — the climaxing — Fact is the fourth 
law of growth: The sole dynamic power that causes 


Laws of Growth 


235 


and controls all human growth is the thought of the 
individual in and for himself. 

We make up to and into this last fact through cer¬ 
tain definite propositions. The Fundamental Reality 
contains the provision for intelligence and is the 
energy of infinite and eternal manifestations of 
thought-activity. In the manifestations of the Real¬ 
ity thought is an activity having meaning, or consti¬ 
tuting meaning, and is, therefore, an intelligent 
“ chooser-between,” since meaning is the relation 
which one activity in manifestations of Reality is given 
with reference to other activities. In man, thought is 
relation among meaning-activities in mind. As the 
human mind is not the human self, but is a creation of 
the human self, so the Reality is not a Universal Mind, 
but is the organizer of its own activities into that 
Mind. Reality is not a Person, although it manifests 
in all persons. Deity is coeval with Reality, but is not 
Reality; is, rather, a manifest of Reality. The Funda¬ 
mental Reality grounds everything. Its provision for 
intelligence expresses in everything, and so, in Deity, 
the Universe, each human individual. As absolute, 
therefore, Reality is not itself conscious, except 
through its activities in manifestation of itself, and in 
human life only in the activities of the self in mani¬ 
festation of itself. So, also, the Reality “ contains ” 
within itself the conditions of activity in thought and 
meaning, but as absolute does not think meanings as 
meanings. Here we have the infinite, eternal, uni¬ 
versal Subconscious or Pre-mental. 

Reality becomes conscious in its manifestations — 


236 


Creative Personality 


that is, in the whole seen and unseen Universe of mat¬ 
ter, Deity and all finite intelligence. Every such exist¬ 
ence, then, is intelligent conscious thought, each of its 
own plane of being. 

This means that the Universal ether of science is, 
throughout, conscious thought becoming in its origin 
intelligent conscious thought-manifest of Fundamen¬ 
tal Reality. That is, Reality obtains consciousness 
throughout the ether. Similarly, every electron, ion, 
wave, undulation, vibration, vortex, atom, molecule, 
chemical element, compound, object throughout the 
Universe is Reality becoming conscious in thought- 
activity. We mean here, not that such existences are 
merely products of Reality’s activities, but that each 
of them is an activity or complex of activities which 
constitutes thought-action. Since Reality can not be 
separated from its manifestations, each existence is a 
conscious thought — has the power of thought-action 
and consciousness — on its own plane of being. 

But the planes of being are many, and are related. 
That the planes of being are many is evident from the 
manifestations of Reality in the Universe. They are 
related through their common Ground and the activi¬ 
ties of that Ground up through them, from plane to 
plane. With certain given existences Reality does not 
pause, but passes into higher planes in their develop¬ 
ment. The thought-action here is not merely an ob¬ 
ject; it is also a developing object. So, the ether be¬ 
comes matter. So, the electrons become chemical ele¬ 
ments, compounds, crystals, objects, plant-bodies, ani¬ 
mal bodies, humans. Thus Reality manifests in the 


Laws of Growth 


237 


thought-action of each existence, each plane of being, 
and in development from lower to higher planes. 

This power of thought-action is the secret of 
growth. Amid all the mysteries of thought nothing 
is more mysterious than its attracting and repelling 
action. Every object of existence (a conscious 
thought) seems to act as though it involved something 
more than itself: the attraction of some other exist¬ 
ence or the repulsion of some other existence. In 
human life every thought seems to act as though 
it involved something more than itself: that is, in¬ 
volves this attraction or this repulsion, because of 
an extra thought of development, or growth, or evo¬ 
lution. Such is the nature of things in matter and 
person. Reality forever unfolds in existences, and, 
never apparently at rest, tends to unfold through 
existences into other existences. No sooner do the 
conditions in Reality which make possible its mani¬ 
festations in thought-action begin to work, than the 
thought begins some kind of growth, development, 
evolution. It is as if no existence could quite “ sat¬ 
isfy ” Reality, so that it must always intensify and 
increase and reach beyond its present expressions. 
Wherever this occurs, an advanced thought seems 
active in that which produces any given manifestation. 

We see this process of upcoming through different 
stages of being exhibited along the whole gamut of 
life. The universal ether is not only itself, but “ con¬ 
tains ” the conditions of matter: the ether-thought is 
also the matter-thought. Reality’s conscious thought 
in the chemical elements is also capable of the thought 


238 


Creative Personality 


expressed in the chemical compounds. The atom in¬ 
volves the molecule, and the molecule involves the 
compound. Some compounds involve life, and life 
involves the plant and animal. Moreover, from the 
viewpoint of evolution, the primal form of life must 
have involved the age-long process through which 
plant life and animal life have come from simpler to 
more complex, from lower to higher forms. 

The process exhibits the working of attraction and 
repulsion. Reality manifests in lower thought-forms; 
the form is now Reality’s conscious thought; the form 
is or possesses thought, and, therefore, a degree of 
consciousness. The form involves something more 
because it is conscious thought in Reality: union with 
other forms for further expression of Reality. This 
union can only come about through attraction and re¬ 
pulsion— attraction for the union, and repulsion for 
a given kind of union. Were every form of life to 
attract every other form, there could be no differentia¬ 
tion, and hence no variety, of manifestation. Attrac¬ 
tion builds, repulsion guides. 

One of the secrets of attraction seems to be some 
degree of similarity of action and harmony with what 
is involved in that action — as suggested in a preced¬ 
ing paragraph. Thus, the chemical elements, Sodium 
and Chlorine involve attraction by reason of some 
kind of similarity of action in harmony with the com¬ 
pound, Sodium Chloride, or salt. Salt, as salt, is 
neither Sodium nor Chlorine, but is a different thing. 
We have to disintegrate salt to get back the elements. 
So the human germ-cells unite because of some degree 


239 


Laws of Growth 

of attraction due to some similarity of action in har¬ 
mony with the resulting single cell and the human indi¬ 
vidual. The single cell is neither of the former cells, 
but is an unique existence. So, also, the child is 
neither one nor the other parent; it is itself absolutely. 
And one of the secrets of repulsion is some degree of 
dissimilarity of action among existences not in har¬ 
mony with the thought of any such existence. Some 
chemical elements indifferently refuse to combine, 
some violently refuse: nothing could come of such 
union. The union-thought is here not involved in the 
element-thought. So, also, we can not graft or bud 
the blackberry on the orange tree, because there is 
dissimilarity of molecular activity. When we have 
that which is involved in any existence, then we know 
that similarity and dissimilarity control attraction and 
repulsion. It thus appears that the conscious thought 
in every individual object of existence — and involved 
therein — is immutable and resistless. It is the uni¬ 
versal thought-consciousness of Reality, and is there¬ 
fore subject to the universal laws of Reality’s mani¬ 
festation. 

For these reasons the operations of the Universe 
apart from man are mechanical, as we should say. 
They go on according to the universal ways Reality 
has of being and doing. Given certain conditions, the 
results are infallible. The reign of law is the reign 
of Reality coming to consciousness in the Cosmos. 
Cause and effect are simply thought and what thought 
involves in any instance. This is simply the nature of 
things. 


240 


Creative Personality 


But in human life Reality comes to a new variety 
of consciousness — individualized as centering in 
will. Reality is not individual; it becomes individual 
in each of its manifestations. And Reality is not will; 
it becomes will in each of its manifestations as finite 
intelligence. Attraction and repulsion operate in hu¬ 
man life as they do elsewhere — always according to 
similarity and dissimilarity in harmony or disharmony 
with all that is involved in existences. The operation 
follows law, invariably and immutably and infallibly. 
But in human life there is one supreme expression of 
Reality in law, to-wit, that it is the nature of Reality 
in man to individualize as will and to obey the behests 
of will. The response of Reality to the human will is 
just as inevitable and just as mechanical as it is so in 
any other plane of its manifestation. The will is not 
mechanical, because Reality expresses its freedom to 
be what its nature calls for in that will, or in the indi¬ 
vidual having the will, and so gives a measure of its 
freedom of that will. If we could enumerate all the 
ways Reality has of being and doing in Nature, we 
should have one way more, to-wit: its way of respond¬ 
ing to the action of the human will. This also is the 
nature of things. 

If, therefore, the reign of law is immutable, the law 
of Reality’s response to the human will is just as im¬ 
mutable, since the response is one of Reality’s uni¬ 
versal ways of acting. Whatever is “ set,” then, in 
Reality, for man, is possible to man. 

Two great facts now emerge for emphasis: Human 
growth, in all those processes which build the body and 


Laws of Growth 


241 


mind is the results of the mechanical operation of 
thought as above indicated; all human growth aside 
from such results is the product of the individual 
thought and will, free in the sense that that individual 
may choose his thought as an individual, but mechan¬ 
ical, and infallible in the sense that Reality will obey 
the thought which is chosen. Under such choice, at¬ 
traction and repulsion go on with absolute precision 
and immutability. The prevailing thoughts may 
change, but so long as they continue they operate as 
cause, and Reality unvaryingly brings the effects. If 
the thoughts become habitual, they engage Reality’s 
universal ways of being and doing as certainly as does 
the farmer when he plants his seed. This means, not 
only that direct results must appear, but also that 
thoughts attract similar thoughts and repulse dissim¬ 
ilar thoughts, which fact induces additional conse¬ 
quences. This means also that the individual life at¬ 
tracts or repulses according to its thought-nature as a 
life — not merely as a body or a mind, but in the larger 
sense. Thus the human grows a character, with all 
its peculiarities, and a life. Nothing conceivable has 
such marvelous power. Thought is the arbiter of 
human destiny. 

The so-called laws of association exhibit the princi¬ 
ple of attraction — some degree or kind of similarity 
of action in thought. Mental activities suggest asso- 
ciational ideas as follows: Contiguity, as horse and 
rider; Contrast, as light and dark; Resemblance, as 
Grant and Sheridan; Succession, as thought and 
words; Cause and Effect, as vice and misery; Whole 


242 


Creative Personality 


and Parts, as United States and California; Sign and 
Thing Signified, as Cross and Christian religion. In 
all such cases there is, in the thoughts themselves, or 
in what they involve, or in some underlying thought 
a degree or kind of similarity of mental action. Any 
thought we have suggests some other thought repre¬ 
senting some mental similarity. The thoughts which 
we habitually entertain act according to the laws of 
association, and induce other thoughts of a like nature. 
If the thoughts which we make “ a part of ourselves ” 
are of the character that means best estate as tested 
by happiness, they infallibly act upon other humans 
and upon the Fundamental Reality in such a way as to 
bring to us the elements of growth in the way indi¬ 
cated. If the thoughts are of a contrary nature, their 
operation is in the opposite direction. 

The “ fields ” through which Reality responds to the 
individual’s thought-action are as follows: The first 
“ field ” is the mind of the individual himself. The 
mental activities tend to run in similar trains, and also 
tend to form habits, under the laws of association and 
repetition. The second “ field ” is seen in the minds 
of other people. Thoughts are contagious. Active 
expression of thought suggests similar thought, and 
he who first entertains and manifests a thought is 
likely to induce in others similar thoughts which they 
express so that they react upon the mind of the former 
person. Thoughts are contagious also in the sense 
that ideas act upon the universal ether which transmits 
its own activities to other brains and stimulates cell- 
action which is interpreted by the receiving self in 


Laws of Growth 


243 


terms of the former thought. But the mind which 
receives, in turn acts upon the mind which sends, and 
the outcome is intensification of the original thought- 
action. And, since our minds are always more or less 
open to such “ impressions ” from others, the char¬ 
acter of our habitual thoughts largely determines the 
kind of thoughts that come to us in this manner. 
More and more, then, the mental life becomes " set ” 
by the processes indicated. The third “ field ” is the 
Fundamental Reality itself. The conscious thoughts 
of Reality are exhibited in the seen Universe, but there 
is no reason whatever for concluding that the Uni¬ 
verse is not crowded and charged with thought-actions 
which only manifest in and through the mental life in 
finite intelligences. Just as Reality manifests in a seen 
plant-thought, so it may manifest in an unseen 
thought-existence of unfamiliar order. In some such 
sense as this we may think of the unseen Universe as 
“ alive ” with Reality’s manifested thoughts. Thus 
may we conceive of the inspiration of the mighty 
minds of the race. And, since every human holds 
within himself the possibilities of all human beings, 
even the greatest, any individual has the power of 
drawing upon this universal source, of attracting to 
himself the things that he desires or needs, and of 
repulsing whatever he does not need or desire. 

It is important to note at this point that the third 
“ field ” in which thought acts, the Fundamental 
Reality, is universal, embracing or immersing and 
saturating every conceivable actual existence, and so, 
interacting in and through such existences with itself. 


244 


Creative Personality 


Its manifestations, therefore, are inter-related in in¬ 
conceivable complexity. The interaction of Reality 
and the inter-relation of its manifestations bring about 
this universal condition: Every object tends to act in 
some way upon every other object throughout the 
whole system. The tendency “ makes good ” unless 
arrested by some action having the power to arrest it. 
Thus, light tends to fall upon all things in its course, 
but may be arrested by an opaque object. The play 
of the inter-action of Reality, which is the play of its 
thought-action, may be diverted from a direct course 
by some particular action, as seen in the illustration 
of light. So, the relation of objects — of all thoughts 
— may be changed by some particular thought having 
the necessary power. But always Reality acts in these 
cases in its universal ways — according to its laws. 
Nature exhibits these propositions everywhere. They 
hold equally good in human life. Our thoughts uti¬ 
lize the Reality, which plays up into our consciousness. 
Reality interacts in our thoughts. Our thoughts are 
related for that reason. But thought is thought, 
wherever it appears, and the nature of thought insures 
the inter-relation or inter-action of Reality in and 
through all the thoughts of the Universe, seen and un¬ 
seen— the object-thoughts and the human thoughts. 
It is the tendency of the object-thought to influence 
us, which tendency can only be arrested or varied 
by some particular thought having potency enough. 
Similarly, the human thoughts effect the objects sur¬ 
rounding the individual, and do so, not only in the 
sense that we mould matter and persons in the ways fa- 


Lams of Grozvth 


245 


miliar to us all, but also in the sense that our thoughts 
affect Reality in objects, and thus leave an “ impress ” 
upon them. We speak into a dictagraph, and leave 
there a record of our words. This illustrates, it does 
not describe or explain, the action of our thoughts 
upon the material manifestations of the common 
Reality which surround us. The outcomes of the 
general truth here set forth are various. 

Human thoughts induce response of Reality accord¬ 
ing to its laws. We create what may be called “ move¬ 
ments ” in the Reality, as we do in water, air, the ether. 
For the lack of better words such “ movements ” may 
be described as vibrations, undulations, waves, rays, 
vortices. The “ movements ” may be steady, smooth, 
strong, far-reaching. They may be inconstant, weak, 
“ short-lived.” They may constitute “ storms ” in any 
degree of intensity and scope. Such “ movement ” 
responses of Reality, leave some impress upon all 
things about us, since these also are thoughts, and, for 
that reason,— because Reality “floods” every object 
and every human brain,— the “ movements,” the re¬ 
sponses, tend to react back upon us — affect us by a 
return thought-action. It is our human fate to get 
back what we impress upon Reality in any way. This 
“ backset ” directly affects growth, just as thought di¬ 
rectly affects growth, because the “ backset ” is a 
thought-action. If the individual habituated thought 
is of a nature to bring happiness, it correspondingly 
affects every object surrounding the person, and Real¬ 
ity responds by return action accordingly. If the indi¬ 
vidual habituated thoughts are of an opposite charac- 


246 


Creative Personality 


ter, the result is an inevitable injurious reaction of 
Reality upon him. The objects of a slaughter-house 
have a different unseen character from the objects of 
a peaceful home. It is human fate that man can not 
escape some kind of reaction upon himself of his 
thought-action on the material world in the sense indi¬ 
cated. The fate, however, is not beyond our specific 
control so far as concerns the particular character of 
the response. If our thoughts habitually make for 
happiness, we impress Reality in our world in such a 
manner as to induce reactions corresponding, and thus 
actually intensify the power of the thoughts them¬ 
selves. Since, then, Reality “ saturates ” us and all 
objects and individuals, and thus reacts to our thought, 
every man, woman, and child possesses the power of 
utilizing the Infinite and Eternal according to desire 
— within the limits only of individual humanness. 
This brings us to a basic and vastly important consid¬ 
eration, the validity of human desire. 

Validity of Desire. Desire is thought — thought 
concerning an object, condition, person, goal, etc., as¬ 
sociated with the thought of possession and the thought 
of satisfaction. A desire may be accompanied by an 
emotion — which is thought — or by bodily feeling, 
which is also thought, since thought is any action of 
the self having meaning. 

Desires, then, have all the power and the conse¬ 
quences of thought. Desires, considered as a general 
fact in human life, are expressions of the Fundamental 
Reality in us. They are as inseparable from the indi- 


Laws of Growth 


247 


vidual as are his heart, his brain and his mind. They 
contribute to growth precisely as does thought. 
When Reality individualizes in the human being it 
establishes therein the power of desire, a tendency of 
the individual to express his nature. Instinctly the 
human individual desires to unfold his individuality, 
and around that desire cluster and develop innumer¬ 
able associational desires contributing to its action. 
This also is the nature of things. Reality tends to 
self-expression; in the human individual we call such 
tendency desire in the general sense. No one tends 
to be or do what he does not desire to be or do. 

Desire-thoughts are always associated with satisfac¬ 
tion-thoughts. The highest meaning of these latter is 
happiness, for happiness is the only conceivable climax 
of any intelligent existence. Happiness is conserva¬ 
tive: it always makes for more and more of harmo¬ 
niously individualized expression of itself. The sig¬ 
nificance of satisfaction-thought, however, varies in 
every human, but the criterion of its correctness is the 
question whether or no the satisfaction will forever 
unfold more of itself in purity and fulness. Any kind 
of satisfaction that fails in this tendency while its 
cause is at work is not happiness. Given the con¬ 
ditions and causes of any kind of happiness, happiness 
continues steadfastly and unfolds itself unceasingly. 
Satis faction-thoughts, then, get character from these 
considerations. Desires, in other words, are what we 
call “ good ” or “ bad.” Their moral nature is deter¬ 
mined by the criterion of happiness — satisfaction- 


248 


Creative Personality 


thought which deathlessly unfolds itself under given 
continuing causes and conditions. There is no other 
ultimate test. 

Given causes and conditions of happiness may 
change or cease: two consequences follow. The 
memory of happiness, or of the causes and conditions, 
holds a degree of happiness over. The individual has 
yet the capacity for happiness and the power to insti¬ 
tute other causes and conditions making still for hap¬ 
piness. 

Some satisfaction-thoughts have the character above 
suggested, and act as happiness acts, more or less. 
Some satis faction-thoughts fail in these respects. We 
see here desires which express the individual in an im¬ 
perfect state, but which do not express the goal of 
Reality’s unfoldment. Reality here obeys the desires 
under its laws of response; it does not express its own 
uncoerced tendencies. 

As we have already seen, the test of the practical 
outcome of satisfaction-thoughts — desires — is ex¬ 
perience. The conclusions of experience must, in a 
general theoretical way, be left to the individual. So¬ 
ciety protects itself by laws, punishments and prisons 
and public opinion, but it can never enter the human 
mind and compel the human self to accept its verdicts 
on this question of satisfaction and happiness. That 
self alone can settle such a question, and only the ex¬ 
perience of the self is available and final in the settle¬ 
ment. 

From these considerations we deduce the tests of 
the validity or “ legitimacy ” of human desires. Every 


Laws of Growth 


249 


desire which is in itself a pleasure and the satisfaction 
of which is a pleasure that makes for happiness as de¬ 
termined by experience, either of the individual or of 
others whose opinion is valued, may be regarded as 
“ legitimate,'” and may be realized until a contrary 
result is made certain. Hence, every desire which is 
in itself a happiness, and the satisfaction of which 
makes for happiness, may also be regarded as “ legiti¬ 
mate,” and may be realized to the full. On the 
contrary, every desire which is in itself and its gratifi¬ 
cation conducive to a pleasure that experience shows 
does not make for happiness, is “ illegitimate,” and 
must be denied by the individual who seeks to unfold 
Reality to best estate. 

The power of habituated desire is the power of 
thought, and the most potent thought-power in the 
world. Its objects are innumerable, and its opera¬ 
tions bring about the two great results — confusion, 
with unhappiness and defeat, and order, with happi¬ 
ness and success. The supreme object which desire 
may seek is individual freedom with full satisfaction 
of the individual life. Real freedom must involve 
happiness. Real happiness involves freedom. This 
reversal of the terms means that freedom is a balanced 
condition providing for happiness in a mutual sense. 
Every human individual is entitled to freedom, and 
the universality of the right calls for balance of the 
freedom and happiness of each human with other 
humans. The free and full satisfaction of one’s life 
can only be secured through recognition of the rights 
of each and all to freedom and happiness. Desire is 


250 


Creative Personality 


a mighty power, so that the right of every man and 
woman to live his and her own life, freely and fully, 
is always to be tested by the criterion of mutual wel¬ 
fare and happiness. If the gratification of desires 
would evidently make for the happiness and welfare 
of others as well as of the self, they are “ legitimate.’' 
The word, “ evidently,” is deliberate here, since de¬ 
sires arise occasionally which have not been tested out 
in life, and in such case right of freedom to take its 
chances must be recognized. If experience is back of 
the “ evidently,” the conclusion above follows. If de¬ 
sires actually make for unhappiness and lack of wel¬ 
fare in the individual and others, they are “illegit¬ 
imate.” 

Desire-thoughts exercise an enormous influence in 
our life. This fact is shown by universal experience. 
They may, therefore, be deliberately and intelligently 
employed as a power for growth and fulness and free¬ 
dom of life, by concentrating the mind or the self 
upon them steadily, intensely and persistently. Such 
concentration engages the Fundamental Reality ac¬ 
cording to its universal laws, and absolutely assures 
corresponding results. It is the nature of Reality to 
react to concentrated desire phrased in the words of 
definite thought. The subject now suggested may be 
analyzed in the following way. 

The Great Wonder of Concentration. Concentra¬ 
tion is a wonder because it means a steady “ holding 
of the restless human self at attention,” and because it 
entails the upcoming and reorganization of thought. 

“ Holding at attention ” may result from the fact 


Laws of Growth 


251 


that some thought or some external actuality has ar¬ 
rested the mind’s actions so far forth and engaged 
the interest of the self. Such would be an example 
of involuntary attention. The “ holding ” may also 
result from a voluntary conscious effort. In this case, 
the object of attention is kept in " view.” The “ hold¬ 
ing ” is now due to the idea, “hold fast.” The 
self takes the attitude of attention to the matter in 
hand. 

Regimes for the Fourth Law of Growth. From 
this discussion may be drawn out the following 
Regimes. The Regimes will be general only, as in 
preceding cases, since the subject is so vast, and the 
student should become familiar enough with them to 
make particular regimes for himself according to his 
own needs. 

1. It is suggested that you cultivate a strong con¬ 
sciousness of this fact: “ I am myself a living em¬ 
bodiment and creator of thought. By and through 
my consciously directed thought I utilize all things 
as needed and determine my own personal growth. 
I demand the conscious unfoldment of all my highest 
powers.” 

2. It is suggested that from henceforth you live 

only on your highest plane of thought and life. Do 
not descend to any lower plane with or for any other 
human being. In the meantime seek that unfoldment 
of yourself on your own plane which tends to lift your 
personality and life up to a higher plane. The idea 
may be thus expressed: “ I live solely in the high 

plane on which I feel that I belong. I do not descend. 


252 


Creative Personality 


I am steadily growing toward some higher plane for 
which my nature provides.” 

3. It is suggested that you make this thought po¬ 
tent in your life: “ I have power to attract to myself 

everything that I desire or need; and I have power 
to put from me that which I do not want.” 

4. It is suggested that you test all your desires by 

the test of long-run happiness. An inspirational sen¬ 
tence may be this: “ My desires are all legitimated 

by the Fundamental Reality, but I am for my own 
happiness. I desire, and I attract and repel accord¬ 
ing to that test only. The Universe is mine. I at¬ 
tract to myself what I want. I repel whatever prom¬ 
ises for me long-run on happiness.” 

5. It is suggested that you keep this goal of happi¬ 
ness steadily in view and trust the Infinite reality to 
serve you, and to obey you, according to the strength 
of your thought. But you should remember that 
Reality will wreck you as truly as it will build you, 
and you should, therefore, never forget the test or 
criterion of permanent happiness. Assured of these 
considerations, let us say, “ I have absolute confidence 
in the Fundamental Reality ultimately to bring to me 
whatever I desire, whatever I demand.” The matter 
in hand may be some thought “ held in view ” in or¬ 
der that other thoughts related thereto may appear. 
The matter in hand may be a desire, as “ I wish or de¬ 
mand a new piano,” or, it may be an affirmation, as, 
“ I am a phase of Infinite Reality.” If the concen¬ 
tration is good, irrelative thoughts are refused so soon 
as they appear, and the one thought is “ held ” dis- 


Laws of Growth 


253 


tinctly, in words, intensely and persistently. Concen¬ 
tration on a given thought induces other thoughts re¬ 
lated, together with the organization of the results 
into some desirable form, as, a theory, a plan, and so 
on and so on. Concentration of thought as a demand 
or an affirmation induces action of the Fundamental 
Reality in the direction indicated by the desire. 

The self acquires facility and power in these re¬ 
spects by continuing the concentration, intensely made, 
for a long period, or until the results desired appear. 
Moreover, such concentration is demanded in order 
that Reality may be “ moved ” to its appropriate re¬ 
sponse. We are employing a mighty mechanism in 
this work, and should not expect to accomplish great 
things without adequate effort. If you concentrate 
rightly, deeply, intensely, persistently, for long, the 
desired results are bound to come about. This is true 
whether your desires are “ legitimate ” or “ illegiti- 
mate. ,, It is the nature of Reality to do your bidding 
when your thoughts acquire the needed power. And 
power comes of practice. Particular instructions will 
be given later under an appropriate heading, but the 
above considerations suffice for the subject of growth. 
We come, now, to a law which is necessarily involved 
in the action of thought and attraction and repulsion. 

The Fifth Law of Growth. 

All growth involves intelligent selection of required 
material for the growing structure. In all growth, 
whether of objects or of persons, Reality “ feeds ” 
its individualized manifestations according to sugges- 


254 


Creative Personality 


tion which the latter give it. The manifestations must 
decide on the material required. Intelligence here 
shows itself a true “ chooser-between: ” in the Reality, 
by appropriate response to the selective power of 
growing objects and persons, and in the latter by the 
very act of selection. The mineral, Tourmaline, is 
found in quarries of Feldspar. In varieties of the first 
we find Silicon, Aluminum, Iron, Oxygen, Calcium, 
Manganese, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Lithia, 
Fluorine, Hydrogen, while in the Feldspar the ele¬ 
ments are Potassium, Aluminum, Lithia, Silicon, Oxy¬ 
gen, Calcium, Sodium. The minerals have resulted 
from selective action (attraction, affinity — the process 
may be called) by which each mineral has crystallized 
into its own mass and form. The Tourmaline some¬ 
times meets obstructions in the way of its crystalliza¬ 
tion and, passing around such, continues its process. 
Occasionally crystals are found which have been 
broken by some disturbance in the Feldspar matrix 
and have mended themselves. We should expect such 
results if we conceive of every object in Nature as 
being thought as an expression of Fundamental 
Reality. In a solution of salt or in one of sugar 
crystallization takes place, the elements attracting each 
other until the crystal is begun and the latter selecting 
out of the solution the atoms of like nature. The 
plant world exhibits a process of selection in every 
living thing, each intelligently “ deciding ” upon what 
it requires and appropriating the same. When mat¬ 
ters “ go wrong ” here, because of an accident, or be¬ 
cause of the presence of some foreign substance, the 


Laws of Growth 


255 


undesirable growth follows the same process: Reality 
takes its cue, and proceeds in accordance with the se¬ 
lection made. The animal world has a similar uni¬ 
versal exhibit: Reality, true to its laws, selects and 
responds to selection, in every molecule, compound, tis¬ 
sue, organ and member of the body. Out of eighty- 
odd chemical elements about fifteen are normally se¬ 
lected for the animal structure. Out of hundreds of 
thousands of chemical compounds, comparatively a 
very few are selected for animal tissue. Out of all 
sorts of organs and members, only certain kinds are 
employed in a given type of life. “ Natural Selec¬ 
tion ” exhibits the thought-power of the manifold ex¬ 
pressions into which Reality passes and becomes con¬ 
scious. Growth is a test of intelligent selection. 
This, indeed, is the very significance of growth — so 
far forth. 

Mental life exemplifies the conception here set up, 
not more truly but perhaps more familiarly. Thought 
is thought, no less in a plant than in a mind. Since 
the word, “thought,” is usually taken in the sense 
of connection with a mind as ordinarily understood, we 
shall readily assent to the proposition that the self 
exercises a power of selection in mind-building. The 
human mind is a complex of every one of the ac¬ 
tivities of the self in knowing. Not every activity of 
the self could constitute what we call Mind. The 
knowing activities in mind are habituated activities of 
various " set ” forms or kinds, to which specifying 
names are given. In its earliest stages the self reacts 
to the world’s action upon it in one general and vague 


256 


Creative Personality 


activity in knowing —“ pure ” sensation. The self is 
capable of other ways of acting in knowing — such as 
perception, memory, imagination, ideation, etc. At 
some stage the self began to select out of its possible 
ways of acting these given ways; that is, the self came 
to habituate itself in and to these ways of acting in 
knowing. Origin, habituation, using for ends, have 
built up the human mind. Reality manifested in the 
self’s tendency to form a mind, and Reality in the Not- 
self assailed the self and stimulated such tendency, 
and Reality responded to the suggestion of the self¬ 
activity. Thus comes a mind. The complex process 
exhibits selection from start to finish. The self se¬ 
lects the objects of its attention; has the power to 
do so. The self may also more or less determine what 
its own reaction to the external and internal world 
shall be. The self may select — decide on — the ma¬ 
terial for its growth which is continuously offered it 
by the vast realm of existence about it. 

When the mind becomes a fact as mind, the self dis¬ 
covers that it is surrounded by a marvelous Universe 
of objects and activities. In some definite manner it 
knows that it must choose food and drink for the 
body, and similarly it vaguely comes to know, and 
should clearly know, that it must choose material for 
the mental life. The selecting process determines 
mind as mind and the kind or character into which 
mind shall grow; that is, the human mind is the re¬ 
sult of the selection by the self of its established ac¬ 
tivities, such as attention, perception, memory, etc.; 
and the character which any mind assumes in time is 


257 


Laws of Growth 

the result of a similar selection by the self of the facts, 
principles, laws, truths, fancies, desires, etc., etc., in its 
mental life. 

The importance of this far-reaching law is im¬ 
mense. Selection of mental material for or. in growth 
goes on, whether or no. As a human the individual 
can not prevent this fact. But the direction which 
growth shall take, together with the materials selected 
and the fulness, richness, variety, and power, are all 
matters within the individual control. We can not 
stop the action of the senses, but we can determine the 
objects of their attention. We are not able to totally 
arrest the action of the mind, but it is within our power 
to decide on what the action shall engage, and the qual¬ 
ity of that action. We have to grow, for better or for 
worse, but we are always able to select the elements of 
mental life which shall enter into that growth. If the 
selection is the outcome merely of the sheer nature of 
the self to do something,— any old thing in any old 
way,— a corresponding weak and chaotic growth will 
result. If, on the contrary, the selection is made in 
the interests of the highest unfoldment of the self 
making for happiness, this will insure a growth un¬ 
failingly satisfactory. It is absolute law that Reality 
will respond with exactness to the suggestion of our 
selection in this respect. 

In such selection of mental material the self em¬ 
ploys the law of attraction and the law of repulsion. 
It attracts what it wants, and it repulses what it does 
not want. The attraction is that of thought upon 
thought, and the repulsion is that of thought against 


258 


Creative Personality 


thought. Each individual is surrounded by a world 
of thought, and the selection is, in some way, direct 
or indirect, a thought-action working in the mind of 
the self. Remembering that every existence, however 
elemental, is a conscious thought of Infinite Reality, 
we see that the Universe about us is a vast complex 
of individual thought-objects and thought-processes 
from which the human self may select and attract 
whatever it desires and needs for growth of mind. In 
the world of sense, the thought-objects — existences 
to be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched — are 
wholly innumerable. In the realm of the intellect and 
that of the emotions, the elements which are spread be¬ 
fore us are as the stars in the heavens. If we take the 
field of art, there are elements sufficient for all time. 
Every artist is the result of a selection, not merely of 
subjects, but perhaps more, of the materials that enter 
artistic growth. If we take science, we see, for ex¬ 
ample, in the study of matter, how the human intellect 
may attract facts, laws, truths, principles to itself out 
of the infinite resources of the Reality, in the recent 
discoveries made in electricity, the electrons, and 
Radium-activities. Thus it is in every direction. Not 
only do the different departments of human life, such 
as art, science, industry, government, etc., grow by 
reason of the selection of mental material, but individ¬ 
ual minds follow the law that thought in man attracts 
and repels thoughts in the great Reality external to 
them. 

This law is of absolute importance to you. A vital 
question confronts the reader. “ What am I do with 


Laws of Growth 


259 


this attracting and repelling power of thought acting 
upon the mighty realm of thought-material presented 
for my selection in the Universe about me? As I 
select, so will Reality respond; as I select, so shall I 
grow in the mental powers with which I am endowed. 
Reality in the Not-self places itself at my disposal, and 
Reality within my own self will infallibly respond to 
my selective choice of the elements I desire for my 
growth.” 

The principle on which selection should be made is 
two-fold. One phase of the principle is desire; the 
other phase is harmony with happiness. Desire may 
dictate selection of material making for unhappy 
growth, but Reality will obey the suggestion and in¬ 
sure that kind of growth. Desire may go all toward 
happiness, and Reality will respond accordingly. 
Thought attracts its own kind as selection is decided. 
Desire is legitimated by the tendency of its gratifica¬ 
tion to realize happiness. Each individual must de¬ 
cide for himself. Fundamentally the great desire- 
principle of selection should be considered carefully 
and put into operation whenever it is an expression 
of the individual nature and will contribute to personal 
welfare. It is a waste of time and energy to select 
material for growth without regard to natural tend¬ 
encies, deep-seated desires, inherent tendencies and 
capabilities. If the individual is assured that such and 
such a desire is a part of him and will bring happi¬ 
ness through its gratification, selection of mental 
“ food ” should be made freely, fully and without fear. 
In such desires Reality is tending to express itself in 


260 


Creative Personality 


some great way through the individual who becomes 
conscious of the desire. Assured of this fact, we 
know that Reality is the Not-self contains all the ele¬ 
ments necessary to a satisfactory growth in the direc¬ 
tion indicated and will infallibly respond to the 
suggestion by so much as the thought involved is in¬ 
tense and persistent. Such thought proves that the 
selection in the mental life is the highest type of se¬ 
lection. The mind, by reason of what it happens to 
be at any time, insures selection in the sense of a sort 
of automatic working, as seen in an individual who is 
always bent on pleasure, in which case every passing 
appeal is sufficient to insure some kind of selection, 
under the law of natural attraction. But when we 
decide on what we imperatively want, this is the se¬ 
lection that holds steadfast and compels Reality to 
do our bidding. This brings us to our regimes. 

Regimes of the Fifth Law of Growth. 1. Since 
we grow by reacting to the action upon us of the 
worlds of Nature and man, and since we have the 
power sufficiently to determine what our own reac¬ 
tions shall be, our use of materials furnished for 
growth should not be haphazard, but should be intel¬ 
ligently chosen. 

It is, therefore, suggested that you resolve to select 
out of the whole mass of actions upon you by man and 
Nature those only which you need for your best de¬ 
velopment. Refuse to attend to those objects of sense 
and which you dislike, and which will not serve your 
own best interests. Do not fill your mind with dis¬ 
agreeable and useless thoughts. Such matters will 


Laws of Growth 


261 


claim your attention, but put them away. Train your¬ 
self to attend to sense-objects and to thoughts which 
will insure your highest growth. Our sentence for 
auto-suggestion may be, “ I alone select the materials 
of my growth.” 

2. Growth occurs in many directions. Any hu¬ 
man may grow in all directions, given time enough. 
Your practical question is, what kind of development, 
or, what direction of growth, do I now desire? 
Hence, it is now suggested that you definitely decide 
this matter, and refuse longer to permit your own 
growth to be the support of chance. Remember, you 
are absolutely the arbiter of your own development. 
You are invited to affirm daily until you are strong and 
positive on this subject, “ I have the power to deter¬ 
mine, and I do determine, the natu-re and extent of 
my own growth.” 

3. In managing our own personal growth, we may 
make many mistakes, but there is no help for this in 
the development of free intelligence. Mistakes are a 
part of the price of freedom, and it is better to err 
while king than to be faultless and a fool. Habituate 
your mind to the thought, therefore, “ I think my own 
way, I select the materials, and I determine the di¬ 
rection of my own growth, with perfect confidence in 
myself.” 


The Sixth Law of Growth. 

All growth is the result of appropriation of materials 
selected. There can be no growth without appropria¬ 
tion of “ food-elements.” Apparently obvious as this 


262 


Creative Personality 


law may seem to be, it has, nevertheless, an important 
bearing on the subject before us and is especially sig¬ 
nificant. 

In the whole realm of Nature, apart from the hu¬ 
man mind, selection is really appropriation. Appro¬ 
priation and selection may be distinguished for discus¬ 
sion, but the process is practically one. An atom 
selects by appropriation, according to the thought-at¬ 
traction of its nature. Two germ-cells appropriate by 
selection each the other. Thereafter, the resulting 
one cell appropriates as it selects the elements nec¬ 
essary to growth. If this process is interfered with 
in any way, appropriation-selection continues, never¬ 
theless, but in some “ abnormal ” way. Reality mani¬ 
fests now in a more or less different direction, but re¬ 
mains meanwhile absolutely true to its laws. The 
crystal, the plant, the animal, in the very act of se¬ 
lection, appropriates. 

We see the working of the law also in the human 
body. Studying the process as it goes on within that 
structure, we see that growth (including mainte¬ 
nance), in every particle, tissue, organ and member, 
appropriates precisely as it selects. All this work is 
“ mechanical,” not under the conscious supervision of 
the individual. The individual selects and appro¬ 
priates his food; thereafter, Reality does its own work 
according to universal laws. The food is digested, 
distributed throughout the body as needs demand, and 
selection-appropriation completes its mission for all 
the building processes of growth. If the physical 
structure is normal, the appropriation is normal: 


Laws of Growth 


263 


Reality obeys the corresponding suggestion. If the 
physical condition is abnormal, appropriation will be 
of a like nature. The normal physical condition fol¬ 
lows the normal thought-condition, and the abnormal 
physical condition follows the abnormal thought-con¬ 
dition. The former may be disturbed by thought; and 
so, also, the latter may be corrected by thought. 

In the field of conscious human mind, however, se¬ 
lection often precedes appropriation, and, in many 
cases, must do so. Selection may here be practically 
appropriation, but it may as well not be so. The rea¬ 
son for this fact is to be found in the self-controlling 
nature of the human self. After exercise of will, mat¬ 
ters of growth go on as mechanically in human life as 
in the outside world of Nature. Thus we swing the 
mechanism of the Universe into obedience to our be¬ 
hests. 

Take the sixth law in relation to matters of physical 
food, for example. The individual selects his food, 
but he does not always appropriate it in that act. One 
may purchase meat without eating it. Even when se¬ 
lected on the table, food must be taken into the sys¬ 
tem if it is to be appropriated. This last act is the 
final element in real appropriation. And this final act 
is always within the province of the individual will. 
Thus, out of all the vast variety of food-elements fur¬ 
nished by the material world, the individual must se¬ 
lect and appropriate what he wants. Growth follows 
appropriation, and only appropriation. That growth 
is determined by the conscious self in the sense that 
the self must appropriate as well as select desired 


264 


Creative Personality 


food. If the individual appropriates properly for him¬ 
self, Reality takes care of the growth in a perfectly 
satisfactory manner. If the appropriation is “ wrong,” 
Reality obeys in bringing about “ wrong ” growth. 
There is no help for the fact set forth. But there is 
nothing on earth or in the heavens to prevent the 
growth when appropriation has once occurred — so 
long as no other cause intervenes. And, since thought 
is so potent in all our world of life, the nature and 
intensity of our thoughts in connection with the appro¬ 
priation of foods tremendously enhances the workings 
of Reality within us — whether for “ good ” or for 
“ ill.” When we appropriate foods, Nature begins 
the marvelous song of growth, for which our thoughts 
are inspiring accompanists. 

Take the sixth law in matters of mental food for a 
second example. Just as in the case of the body, so 
in the case of the mind, the results of selection and 
appropriation of food come about mechanically, in 
accordance with universal laws in Reality. What you 
select and appropriate goes into your mental growth, 
good or bad, whether you desire the results or not. 
Reality puts itself at our disposal, as it were, but 
Reality places no law under our power to change it or 
to modify its workings, once the causes are set in oper¬ 
ation. Selection here starts “ the mills of the gods ” 
grinding, and the only way in which we can change the 
“grinding” is to change the selection and appropria¬ 
tion. 

It is for each individual, then, to make selection of 
mental food exactly for the kind of growth he may de- 


Laws of Growth 


265 


sire. When, in the mental field we select material for 
development, we select the same for the sake of ap¬ 
propriation. If appropriation actually takes place, the 
materials actually go into the mind. It is evident that 
often times appropriation does not follow selection. 
In such case, results desired fail. The process in the 
mental life corresponds with the process in the body- 
life. To appropriate is to take into the structure. 
This taking in requires attention to the object or 
thought, the effort of really getting it. Appropria¬ 
tion from the great world of harmony demands the 
concentration of years, together with developing skill 
and wisdom in conducting the process. Similarly, in 
business, or that of science, and so on, and so on. 
Within any field of mental food-elements a like ap¬ 
propriation following selection must be entered upon 
and continued. 'Reality surrounds and saturates us as 
individuals, and provides everything necessary to 
growth, or one way or another way, and Reality is al¬ 
ways ready to respond to our efforts at appropriation, 
but it is for each of us to select that which we desire 
or need and then to put forth the labor adequate to 
compulsion of Reality within us. 

The necessity of actual appropriation is seen in the 
growth of any given “ faculty ” of the mind. If one 
wishes a strong and correct and symmetrical memory, 
one may select the kind of memory, the quality of 
memory, and the things desired for the “ storing ” of 
memory. But all this is mere ideation — perhaps a 
mere fancy — until actual appropriation of memory- 
matters, whether of business, poetry, facts, principles, 


266 


Creative Personality 


in art, science or what-not, is actually made. Simi¬ 
larly with imagination, or reasoning, or will, etc., etc. 
The entire matter is under control of the individual. 
According to his appropriations, so will be his growth. 
The Universe awaits his strong seizure, and there is 
no one and there is no thing at fault but himself if he 
lives in a Universe of Reality which he does not use, 
or if he uses it for his own unhappiness. 

Not only may the self appropriate elements of 
growth from the visible world of Nature and humans, 
but also from the unseen realm within himself. The 
deeper self opens out, so to speak, into the Funda¬ 
mental Ground or Source of all things. That Exist¬ 
ence is forever offering to us its truth and wisdom. If 
we turn our attention to the “ vasty deep ” within us, 
and “ look ” and “ listen,” keeping out of conscious¬ 
ness the visible world of things and people, we shall 
find arising in mind thoughts that are worth our while. 
Especially will such be the case if we mentally demand, 
“ I demand to know the best truths and the highest 
wisdom which my life needs.” Under concentration 
of this sort, the self sometimes is “ inspired.” The 
scientist has his hypotheses and explanations coming 
to him as a result of this effort, the business man finds 
plans and solutions of problems, the writer discovers 
ideas. Thus we may call on Reality to impart its 
wealth to us. The thoughts that arise now become 
subjects for selection and appropriation at our will. It 
is for the self to select; and it is for the self to ap¬ 
propriate. Some effort is here evident. Innumer¬ 
able thoughts issue into mind under such conditions, 


Laws of Growth 


267 


but the self must thereupon decide what it wants, and 
then grasp the thoughts for its own uses. The 
course here outlined is not day-dreaming. The latter 
may take place in any indolent mental state. Real ap¬ 
propriation of the results of this concentration in¬ 
volves work that is adequate to the values received. 
If the work is genuine, the values will prove the great¬ 
est in any life. 

Regimes of the Sixth Law of Growth. Following 
the idea of merely general regimes which the student 
is supposed to analyze and apply according to his own 
needs, our present suggestions may be thus outlined. 

1. Some earnest students read hundreds of books, 
but fail to do their own thinking. This is mental 
Gourmandizing, and yields the results of an over 
loaded and untrained mind. It is suggested, now, that 
whatever the amount of your reading may be, you in¬ 
dependently think your way through the subject in 
hand. In this way you select and appropriate mate¬ 
rials of growth, and build them into your growing self 
by the only possible building process, that of thought. 
You are invited to make this a life-long regime, “ I 
subject all things to the test of my own thought.” 

2. It is suggested that you make selection of mate¬ 
rials for growth effective by actually working them 
into your personal life. If you determine upon, say, 
muscular development, or development of any par¬ 
ticular sense, or any mental “ faculty,” or the master¬ 
ing of any subject, or the acquisition of any art, you 
must, in order to secure growth in the direction de¬ 
sired, resolutely perform the work involved. Such 


268 


Creative Personality 


persistent work insures appropriation of the materials 
of growth. We discover at this point that the appro¬ 
priation is mechanical when you persist in the labor 
decided upon. You eat food, and Reality or Nature 
does the appropriate. You study a subject, or work 
out a train of thought, and Reality in your mental self 
mechanically builds into you the materials of growth 
needed. But all such processes are instituted and di¬ 
rected by your will and your persistence. You are 
invited to inspire will and persistence by holding the 
thought, “ I assist the Fundamental Reality in me to 
appropriate materials for my highest growth by all 
necessary thought and action.” 

3. There are millions of cells in any human brain 
which are never used in thought. So each individual 
has capacities that are never realized, powers that are 
never unfolded. We grow in certain directions, more 
or less accidentally, and fail to discover our own abili¬ 
ties in other directions. It is well, therefore, to test 
out our marvelous nature by efforts to grow in new 
ways, not merely for direct results, but also for the 
indirect effects upon the whole personality. It is sug¬ 
gested that you resolve to mine out some of your un¬ 
used powers, for example, in music, or invention, or 
mechanical work, or writing, etc., etc. In order to get 
yourself into such work, you are invited to carry this 
thought for a few days, “ I demand the conscious 
awakening of all my powers. ,, You will find that this 
thought will suggest new possibilities of growth, and 
actually start into action powers of which you are un¬ 
conscious. In time you will also become aware of the 


Laws of Growth 


269 


fact that thoughts and truths, new and valuable, are 
being appropriated in your mind and life. 

4. Do not for a moment forget that you are a 
manifest of Infinite Life, or the Fundamental Reality, 
and are of the same nature with it. Make this truth 
vital to your consciousness. Put away your old fears 
and ideas of limitation. Affirm this every day of your 
life, “ I, myself, am Infinite Life; I hold within my¬ 
self all possibilities. ,, In this way you make yourself 
a magnet, attracting to yourself and life the materials 
and forces which you need for personal growth. Do 
not dismiss these propositions before trying them out. 
You will then discover their truth and marvelous 
power. 

The Seventh Law of Growth. 

All growth is the result of the processes of dis¬ 
tribution and assimilation of required elements. Dis¬ 
tribution precedes appropriation and assimilation, in 
strict analysis, but takes a connected place in the pres¬ 
ent section of our discussion, and is therefore now 
considered. The process of distribution carries the 
elements of growth into place where they are appro¬ 
priated and assimilated. In the molecule the atoms 
arrange themselves according to their laws. In liv¬ 
ing plants the elements are distributed to different 
parts of the organism and into the tissue. The verte¬ 
brate animal has a circulatory system for this purpose. 
The blood vessels carry the food-elements into the 
neighborhood of all tissues, and, throughout the sys¬ 
tem, the blood passes through the walls of the vessels 


270 


Creative Personality 


and surrounds and bathes every part and organ of the 
body. The food-elements are now taken out of the 
blood thus flowing, and distributed throughout the tis¬ 
sues and organs in a process making for growth. 

We thus see that, after food enters the structure of 
living things it is disintegrated and the elements are 
further transformed into the constituents of growth. 
Digestion and other processes transform food into 
growth elements, and the final process transforms these 
elements into structure. Food-elements are distrib¬ 
uted as blood, and the elements of the blood are then 
transformed into tissue and fluids. The latter proc¬ 
ess constitutes assimilation. 

In the world below mind all these operations are 
mechanical, Reality doing its work perfectly under its 
own laws, according to the suggestion of the life or the 
career or the condition of the organism. When the 
organism is normal, the processes co-work together to 
a normal issue. When the organism is abnormal, the 
inevitable results are abnormal distribution, selection, 
appropriation and assimilation. “To him that hath 
shall be given, and to him that hath not shall be taken 
even that he hath.” The law asks no questions as to 
the ends made certain by the plant’s or the animal’s 
workings; it acts out its own nature to a finish. The 
mechanism of growth is resistless, relentless and in¬ 
fallible, so long as given conditions continue. 

In the mental field of life the same mechanical op¬ 
erations go on so long as conditions do not change. 
Here also we have selection of the growth-elements, 
distribution, appropriation and assimilation. But, as 


Laws of Growth 


271 


in preceding laws, the human individual may choose 
his elements of growth upon which the mechanical op¬ 
erations of Reality shall act. According to what the 
self permits itself to be it selects “ food ” for the mind, 
appropriates the same — and thereafter the nature of 
Reality works itself out with unerring precision. 

The distribution of the mental elements of growth 
is as actual as is that of the physical life. We dis¬ 
tribute throughout the mind — throughout the know¬ 
ing self — facts, as they come, or as we will, prin¬ 
ciples, laws, truths, simple or complex ideas, pictures, 
desire-notions, etc., etc. We see this process exem¬ 
plified in any given mind. To some minds natural ob¬ 
jects have no meaning other than the most superficial: 
only the barest surface-significance of things gets dis¬ 
tributed— finds any sort of use. We see distribution 
at work in the mere pleasure-loving mind: ideas of 
pleasure alone ever find any part of such minds, and 
all things come into this circulation, headlong and 
chaotic. The business man draws into his mental life 
every conceivable matter capable of assisting him, and 
the vortex compels everything to come its way. To 
the artist all objects in Nature are working material: 
the meanings thus derived are forever distributed 
throughout his mind with reference to their artistic 
values. Whether we are dealing with a type of in¬ 
dividual mind — your mind — or with a type of life- 
work, the process of distribution goes on, in the na¬ 
ture of the case, and the mind grows, or this way or 
that way, as a result. 

The very activities of mind as human grow in a 


272 


Creative Personality 


similar manner. The self is a knower, and it knows 
through its activities. These activities are reactions 
to the action of the external world upon the self. In 
addition to selecting its own activities and their ob¬ 
jects, in addition to appropriation of growth-elements 
as furnished, the self comes in time to compel the out¬ 
side world to yield it what it wants, and so, to dis¬ 
tribute facts, principles, etc., now to memory, now to 
imagination, now to reasoning, now to emotion, and 
so on. Mind does not take things just as they come 
and establish its activities in any haphazard manner. 
The self builds mind intelligently and in an orderly 
way. All the elements of mental growth are in the 
Universe before the self arrives as an individual mani¬ 
festation of Reality, and the self has imposed upon it, 
by the fact that it is capable of knowing, the power in 
many ways to select, appropriate and distribute into 
what we may call its several departments all the ele¬ 
ments which it needs for all its different capacities in 
knowing. Thus is exhibited a law of mental develop¬ 
ment — primarily of the mind as such, and secondarily 
as any peculiar type of mind known or desired. 

The mental growth of the individual, therefore, is a 
matter for decision, control, discipline and training. 
The laws operate in all minds, because in all cases the 
individuals do carry out the processes set forth, un¬ 
consciously, perhaps, yet none the less truly. It re¬ 
mains, then, for the intelligent student, to deliberately 
bring these laws under his own supervision. By so 
much as one does this, by so much do the laws mechan¬ 
ically carry out the work set for them. 


Laws of Growth 


273 


Thus, one may distribute the world of actuality, as 
one wills, now to observation-growth, now to the 
growth of memory, or reasoning, or to any other men¬ 
tal faculty. So, also, one may distribute all things, 
more or less, into the capacity for poetry, or painting, 
or music or business, or science, and the like. And 
the guiding principles here are, again, native bent and 
desire making for happiness. 

Above all, in the mental life, does the process of 
assimilation call for intelligent direction. As in the 
realm of the physical life food is transformed into its 
elements and then the elements into tissue, so in the 
mental life does the process of transformation take 
place. We “ take down ” the raw material of the 
senses and of thought as matters are presented to us 

— always prior to actual growth by assimilation. 
Things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, are de¬ 
composed, more or less, into their constituents. 
Meanings are almost without exception complex, and 
we really get them by a process of disintegration and 
transformation. The sense-ideas — and all meanings 

— are individual; with no two persons are they alike 
absolutely. Each mind takes its objects to pieces and 
gets a result not precisely correspondent with the 
object. When the field of thought is entered more 
fully, we see that no thought is perfect, every thought 
seems somewhat fragmentary, all thoughts are the re¬ 
sults of decomposition of something and transforma¬ 
tion of the products into different forms. If two per¬ 
sons, for example, observe a house, the result is two 
mental “ houses, 1 ” neither of which is precisely like the 


274 Creative Personality 

other. Each person has selected certain elements, ap¬ 
propriated them, and transformed the external house 
into an unique mental house. If two persons think, 
“ law of gravitation,” each makes a particular mean¬ 
ing— which is a transformation of all that he has 
heard and read, more or less, into a new individualized 
conception. Thus with every case of sense-percep¬ 
tion, and with every case of ideation or thought-proc¬ 
ess. The world you sense and the world you think 
about is your own creation. The creating work is 
that of transformation of elements selected and ap¬ 
propriated and distributed into your mental field. 

The final process in growth may be called “ build¬ 
ing-in.” The body decomposes its food into elements, 
distributes the results to place, and transforms them 
into proper material for building up of tissue and or¬ 
gans. Similarly, the self proceeds with all elements 
of thought presented to it, closing the process by build¬ 
ing into mind what we may now call a “body of 
thought.” 

By the “ body of thought ” we mean the sum-total 
of thoughts that are familiar, and more or less habitual. 
The “ body of thought ” of the human self consists of 
all the thoughts known to the race. The “ body of 
thought ” in your life is the sum-total of the thoughts 
with which you are familiar, and which you to a de¬ 
gree habitually entertain. We may easily conceive of 
the “ body of thought ” of the merchant, or the scien¬ 
tist, or the farmer, or the historian, the poet, the 
novel-writer, the minister, and so on. One may have 
a general “ body of thought ” and specific departments, 


Laws of Growth 


275 


each of which constitutes a whole regarded as an in¬ 
tegral part of the larger whole. The “ body of 
thought ” is a result of mental growth, and the result 
comes out of the processes already indicated. In any 
case the “thought-body” is a product of a lifetime, 
whether the life be of ten years, or less, or of seventy, 
or more. Since each individual is in a world that al¬ 
ways acts upon the self, and since the self is for¬ 
ever engaged in reacting thereto, a “thought-body” is 
as inevitable in a life-history as is a physical body. 
Here we have Reality “ flowing up ” into the self as 
the self reacts to Reality in the external world, and 
so, Reality individualizing in a mind and the thoughts 
which that mind knows and more or less makes habit¬ 
ual with it. Hence, the process of “ thought-body ” 
building is mechanical, under the universal laws of 
Reality. As, however, in preceding cases, the individ¬ 
ual may control the mechanical operation as mechan¬ 
ical, by suggesting and directing it so also in the men¬ 
tal realm. Some kind of “ body of thought ” each 
one of us is bound to build up; what kind, how full 
and complete and rich and varied — these are matters 
which the individual must himself decide. This de¬ 
cision may be made by the uncertain caprices of the 
day, or it may be deliberated and settled by intelligent 
will. It does not matter to Reality what the decision 
shall be. Universal laws move on relentlessly as we 
engage them. So the Genius of the Cosmos builds our 
“ body of thought ” regardless of our choice, but builds 
when we decide for it with all the power and precision 
of its nature. 


276 


Creative Personality 


We build thought into our mental “ body ” by mak¬ 
ing it our own. Making thoughts our own means that 
we definitely and intelligently think them and give 
them a place among the thoughts already familiar or 
habituated. Common thinking seems to be indefinite, 
haphazard, superficial and related to the mind's ac¬ 
tivities as chance may lead. Real thinking gets at 
things, knows them, is clear and distinct, relates them 
according to mental principles and the laws that act in 
objects, persons, events. Not all the sense-perceptions 
we may have enter our “body of thought,” but only 
those which we to a degree think with energy and in¬ 
tentness. Not all the notions we have during a day 
or a year become a “ part of ourselves,” but those only 
which we think to a purpose and relate more or less 
definitely to our other mental activities. When we 
think through a subject, we make it our own by build¬ 
ing it into our mental life. When what we actually 
know gets the right place in our mind-world, we have 
brought it into place in our mental structure. A 
builder builds into a house wood, iron, stone, brick, 
mortar, etc., never assuming that these materials are 
a part of the house merely because they are strewn 
around on the ground. The mind is a palace for the 
self; all necessary materials are offered in the Uni¬ 
verse of existence; and no materials become a part 
of the palace until actually built in by the master 
builder — the marvelous self. As, also, the house¬ 
building requires that materials be shaped and placed 
by intelligent effort, so does the “body of thought,” 
if it is to be a result of decision rather than of caprice, 


Laws of Growth 


2 77 


demand that the materials furnished by the Universe 
in which we live be selected, appropriated, distributed 
and placed — made into — the mind. This is the 
meaning of self-directed education. This is the proc¬ 
ess by which the self creates a full mind, the posses¬ 
sions of which are rich, varied and subject to com¬ 
mand. And this is the process by which the self be¬ 
comes facile, strong and highly trained. Here, also, 
Reality puts itself at our disposal, rushing to us from 
without, springing up into the self and its individuality 
from within. 

Regimes of the Seventh Law. Your body is a form 
of matter, and matter, on analysis, resolves into ether. 
Your total person, including your personal self, is an 
expression of Reality. You are, therefore, sur¬ 
rounded and saturated by the ether and, so, the Fun¬ 
damental Reality. You have the power physically to 
push your way through the ether, and mentally to pene¬ 
trate Reality in a way comparable to moving through 
it. Our Regimes carry out this idea of traveling 
through a medium. 

1. Remember that we are now dealing with a final 
result of the operations of growth. We are building, 
as we go, the elements of growth into our personal be¬ 
ing. You are invited to think of yourself as pushing 
your way through the Universe of Realty, just as you 
actually push your body through the ether. Our 
Regime means, then, that you be alert on the way, and 
seize upon everything needed for your growth: facts, 
principles, laws, truths, etc., etc. A suggestive sen¬ 
tence may here be given, to wit: “ I journey on, with 


278 


Creative Personality 


a perfectly open mind, and make every day count with 
some new element of growth. ,, 

2. Everything in Nature has Infinite depth, be¬ 
cause each object manifests the Infinite Reality. 
Nothing exists on the surface of Nature, but all things 
are immersed in that inexhaustible Reality which con¬ 
stitutes Nature. This fact makes you a kind of uni¬ 
versal centre, capable of penetrating and appropriat¬ 
ing all reality in all directions. Only as you do this 
can you grow at all, since your growth depends upon 
the degree with which you draw into yourself the 
Reality which is ever tending to express itself through 
you. You should, therefore, endeavor always to pene¬ 
trate into the meanings, reasons, and causes, of the ex¬ 
istences with which you come into contact. Cultivate 
the habit of assailing everything with the interroga¬ 
tive pronouns, “Why?” “What?” “How?” 
“ When ? ” etc. An inspirational sentence here would 
be, “ I demand to know, and thoroughly to under¬ 
stand, the things I meet as I make my way through 
life.” This means that you study objects, persons, 
principles and laws, seek to investigate them, and make 
their Reality a part of your conscious thought-life. 
As a matter of fact, there are multitudes of things all 
about us with which we are familiar, but of which we 
are marvelously ignorant. Life is too short and busy, 
for exhaustive knowledge of everything we meet, but 
if you acquire the habit of mental alertness and in¬ 
quiry, you will find yourself unconsciously absorbing 
a vast amount of otherwise unknown material, and es¬ 
pecially will you develop your mental powers and give 


Laws of Growth 279 

Reality a larger opportunity to build into you its mar¬ 
velous wealth. 

3. Growth means a systematic arrangement of ap¬ 
propriate materials in the personal character and life. 
Not by gathering a mere collection of materials do we 
grow, but by an orderly distribution of the same. 
You are now invited to think of yourself as standing 
within the structure of your life, while Reality passes 
into you for your use whatever you want. If a builder 
merely receives the materials of the house he is erect¬ 
ing, and does not place them properly and relate them 
to each other and to the edifice, he never gets on. 

The builder’s work in putting the material where it 
belongs is your work of investigating and thinking 
things out in some orderly way. In other words, it is 
yours to control and direct your thought. Thought is 
the one only creative or building power you possess. 
It is suggested, then, that you assume the mental at¬ 
titude of a builder, not a collector. When you do this 
and perform the work of investigating and thinking, 
Reality automatically builds itself into your person 
and life. Always carry the idea, “lama builder; I 
fashion Reality into the structure of myself.” 

4. The world in which you live is a world which 
you create by your thought. Some actual Universe 
there is which is external to you, but you copy that 
Universe through the senses and mental operation. 
Your world, therefore, is the world that you thought- 
create. Your whole mental life thus constitutes a crea¬ 
tion of objects, ideas, experiences, knowledges, mem¬ 
ories, etc. You cannot possibly avoid being con- 



280 Creative Personality 

structed, and your inner mind-world is absolutely what 
you make it. If you could see the mind-world of 
many people, you would be humiliated by the foolish 
or the frightful spectacle. Make your world fine. 
Build for your own ultimate satisfaction, build it ac¬ 
cording to the test of happiness suggested in this 
chapter. Take satisfaction in the building process. 
Take joy in your creative power. Cultivate a high 
consciousness of the power to build a world at all, 
and especially to make it fine and great. 

Such are some of the laws of growth. It is suf¬ 
ficient that a thousand writers on this subject would 
write our chapter in a thousand different ways. Es¬ 
pecially true it is that the regimes deduced from the 
study might be greatly varied. The theme seems in¬ 
exhaustible, and the regimes, therefore, are intention¬ 
ally general only, and are capable of many additions 
and applications, according to individual needs. And 
so it is suggested that the student think his way through 
the laws here given until he can formulate them and 
discuss them and work out his own practical sugges¬ 
tions independently for himself. 


LAW — Thought Is Intelligent Life’s Self-initiated 
Action for Fulness of Being. 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE INSTRUMENTS OF PERSONALITY. 

W E have made some progress in our concep¬ 
tion of the Universe as a manifest of 
Reality. Reality expresses itself in things 
and forces, persons and thoughts. The Reality does 
not cease to be itself in its expressions, but continues 
in them. 

As we investigate these expressions, we discover 
various intermediaries which seem to serve as instru¬ 
ments through the action of which Reality passes over 
into later stages of its expressions. It is not said that 
such intermediaries are strictly essential to the mani¬ 
festations in any stage, since this idea would take our 
thought backwards through an endless series of stages, 
an idea which the mind will not tolerate. The fact, 
however, appears that certain manifestations of Reality 
are preceded by others, and that these serve as instru¬ 
ments by means of which Reality finds expression in 
the former. 

The Passing Over of Reality. 

The general idea above suggested may be designated 
as instrumentation. Indeterminate Reality makes into 
individualized or specific things and forces, persons 
281 


282 


Creative Personality 


and thoughts. All these are still Reality, but they are 
Reality manifested. When certain forms of the mani¬ 
festations arrive, the nature of things mechanically 
operates through them into other forms. It is com¬ 
mon to speak of such other forms as higher or supe¬ 
rior, but until person appears, we have no reason to 
assume superiority in any form. Illustrations of this 
passing over of Reality will open up our conception 
in a general way. We begin with illustrations which 
simply indicate our thought, and then take up certain 
illustrations which serve us in our progress toward 
person and beyond. 

In the geological world there are evidences of liv¬ 
ing forms that appear in the development of species 
and kingdoms. There are huge animals with lillipu- 
tian brains, monstrous structures which finally pass 
away. This is an example of what appears every¬ 
where in earlier times. Reality here blunderingly ex¬ 
presses in various forms, and then passes over into 
different forms through which it finally emerges in the 
settled forms of the animal kingdom. Thus innumer¬ 
able living forms come and go. And thus at last 
Reality passes into a type of animal life through which 
it manifests in the Simian type and the human type. 

Taking up illustrations in the line of the progress 
of our thought toward person and beyond, we have the 
following: The Universe seems to have begun in a 
nebulous condition of a Something which has finally 
become matter. There are evidences that this Some¬ 
thing, which we may call proto-matter, now exists in 
space and is becoming matter. Matter is not a mass 


The Instruments of Personality 283 

of indefinite stuff; it is a sum-total of definite elec¬ 
trons, in systems which we call atoms. Proto-matter 
is a sum-total of definite manifestations of Reality 
passing over into matter. When we seek to go be¬ 
yond matter and proto-matter, we seem to arrive at 
a universal medium which is a manifestation of Real¬ 
ity mechanically making toward worlds. We call this 
medium the universal ether. Scientifically speaking, 
we do not know any existence prior to the ether, al¬ 
though, in our thought, the law that every action de¬ 
mands an actor, we supplement the supposition by 
science of the ether with the philosophical notion 
of the Fundamental Reality. The ether illustrates 
the passing-over of Reality into proto-matter. The 
latter gives us the idea of instrumentation into matter. 
Again, since physical life is always associated, when 
it appears, with matter, we have in matter, that is cer¬ 
tain chemical elements in certain relations with each 
other and under certain conditions, an instrument 
through which our Reality makes over into life. 
Again, since psychic factor appears in the world only 
in association with living matter, the latter becomes a 
stage or instrument by means of which Reality mani¬ 
fests in the former. Finally, so far as we have now 
gone, it is through phychic factor that person is de¬ 
veloped. 

We now fix our attention upon person as a complex 
manifestation of Fundamental Reality. Our illustra¬ 
tions of the passing-over of Reality bring before us the 
ideal, person and person’s life. Psychic factor creates 
persons by attracting to itself certain elements and 


284 Creative Personality 

compounds of matter which constitute the human 
body. Acting in certain ways by means of certain 
nerve-centers, psychic factor meanwhile develops the 
human mind. All these processes may be given the 
general meaning of instrumentation. With person 
completed in the sense that it includes all the possibil¬ 
ities that it will ever possess, a further series of pass- 
ings-over and instrumentation begins. We proceed, 
now, to analyze this proposition. 

The Instruments of Person. 

Remembering that person is a manifest of Reality, 
or is Reality manifested, we see that all that person 
does and becomes must also be Reality manifested, and 
that in the doing and becoming from any form of in¬ 
telligent life and personal unfoldment, Reality here 
also is engaged in passing over and in instrumenta¬ 
tion through an indefinite series. But, since person is 
Reality manifested, it is now person that is conceived 
of as employing various instruments for its own pass¬ 
ing on into higher forms. (The use of the words, 
“higher forms,” is now admissible because we are 
dealing with the personal realm.) Let us examine the 
instruments which person employs in life and unfold¬ 
ment. 

Person employs matter in the form of food for 
the maintenance of body, and physic factor creates 
body out of the chemical elements. As physic factor 
is the “ core ” of person, that is, a part of person, we 
may now say that the Reality of person passes into 
the material and structure of the body. If matter is 


The Instruments of Personality 285 

a complex exhibit of the ether, we may also say that 
person in its use of food materials passes into a com¬ 
plex system of activities of the ether within the ether. 
But the above processes do not limit the instrumental 
tion by person of matter and ether through which per¬ 
son unfolds. Let us observe: 

In general human development man makes use of 
the universal ether in certain familiar and intensely 
interesting ways. The heat of the sun reaches the 
earth through this universal medium, makes life pos¬ 
sible, and serves person with infinite diversity and 
docility. Etheric waves assail person and world inces¬ 
santly and in inconceivable numbers, and flood the 
heavens with light. More and more person masters 
and utilizes light for development and welfare. In 
this use, and in all artificial light, we see a form of 
instrumentation through which Reality moves in its 
unfolding manifestations in person, and we also see 
person passing over by means of that etheric activity 
which we call light. Similarly with reference to other 
forms of etheric activity, such as various rays, and 
“ stresses ” and “ strains ” exhibiting in magnetism and 
electricity and gravitation. If we take electricity 
alone, we are amazed at man’s knowledge, inventions 
and utilizations involved in his use of this power, and 
at the physical and mental development resulting there¬ 
from. If we take a bird’s-eye view of civilization, 
with its complexities and innumerable objects and ac¬ 
tivities, we see that it is an actual creation by person 
out of the raw materials of the world. We may con¬ 
ceive of a world devoid of civilization, and then place 


286 


Creative Personality 


man therein and observe the result in the civilization 
which he has developed. He began with the raw ma¬ 
terial of matter and force barren of art, industry, com¬ 
merce, science, government, and so on, and proceeded 
to create beauty, utility, law and truth. He creates 
the objects used in civilization,— buildings, cities, 
furniture, tools and implements, machinery and 
means of transportation. He puts himself into mat¬ 
ter, and creates the results. Reality makes over from 
raw matter into person and through person into mate¬ 
rial creations. Thus, person is ever engaged in a 
process of instrumentation which transforms the earth 
and its contents. 

We observe a similar process in the development of 
human knowledge. Knowledge is a thing of the mind, 
does not exist apart from mind. There is no knowl¬ 
edge in an uninhabited wilderness or world. In the 
sum-total of matter and its activities there are only 
raw things and forces mechanically operating in cer¬ 
tain ways. So soon as man begins to study these ways 
and his own ways of being and doing, knowledge be¬ 
gins to come into existence. Knowledge is not a 
something external to mind and projected into it; it 
is a creation of mind within itself. Mind does not 
go out of itself into a raw world and gather knowl¬ 
edge existing there; it remains within person and in¬ 
terprets the action of a raw world upon it in ways that 
constitute knowledge. Man creates what we call the 
laws of Nature. Nature acts in various ways, and we 
form opinions or conclusions in regard to them, and 
call these conclusions the laws. Thus, men observe 


The Instruments of Personality 287 

an object falling to the ground, begin to study this fact 
from all points of view, and state the results of such 
study in definite propositions, and then refer to the 
propositions as, say, the law of gravitation or the laws 
involved in the action of gravity. In primitive man’s 
life there was no science of Astronomy; man simply 
was, and the facts simply were; science had yet to be 
created. In the raw world of Nature there is no 
Mathematics; there are only facts which mind may 
interpret into Arithmetic or Differential Calculus. 
There is no beauty in land or sea or sky until mind 
interprets the facts and thinks beauty into existence. 
There is no utility in material atoms and compounds 
and forces and activities until person creates utility by 
bringing these existences into its own unfolding life. 
In such a planet as the moon or the sun, no goodness 
is discoverable; goodness is a product of creative 
thought interpreting the fact of intelligent life in terms 
of harmony and happiness. Thus does man create, 
not only the material phases of his civilization, but also 
its higher realities. The whole process exhibits the 
instrumentation of Reality through person into a con¬ 
tinuously transforming world. But the marvelous re¬ 
sult reveals person also engaged in an instrumentation 
of raw matter and its own raw possibilities into greater 
and greater human development. 

For the sake of a comprehensive outlook, let us con¬ 
ceive of the Fundamental Reality as expressing itself 
in a Universe utterly devoid of person. There is here 
merely a complexity of atoms and activities, and no 
law, no truth, no art, no science,— no knowledge of 


288 


Creative Personality 


any kind whatever. Reality has manifested itself in a 
physical Universe, and that is all. Compare such a 
universe with the one actually existing. From the one 
into the other Reality has passed in such a vast and 
brilliant process that, in order to account for it, we 
think we must needs invent an infinite creative God. 
We observe that the difference between the two uni¬ 
verses above supposed is due to the action of the sum- 
total of persons upon the facts presented to them, their 
interpretation thereof and their creation of the non¬ 
material Universe. The sum-total persons have gone 
into a process of instrumentation by which they have 
given raw and meaningless matter untellable meaning 
and value. The Universe that is really worth while is 
a product and an actual creation of person. Thus, we 
see Reality passing over into ether, matter, worlds, 
person, and through person into a Universe which is 
knowledge and spritual life. 

These very general considerations involve one 
specific kind of activity in person. We have seen that 
physic factor builds body and creates mind. In the 
use of mind we have a process of instrumentation by 
means of which person creates the higher universe. 
Person puts forth certain kinds of activities during 
life, and we call the sum-total of these activities the 
mind. Mind is not an entity save in the sense that it 
is a system of activities. It only exists as its activities 
continue. These activities are occasioned by action 
external to each one of them, but are caused by the 
nature of physic factor under control of what we call 
will. They are of person, and are peculiar to person. 


The Instruments of Personality 289 

They are person’s activities, and, since they are always 
reactions, they are instruments by means of which per¬ 
son interprets the world and unfolds its powers. 
These activities are commonly classified as sensation, 
sense-perception, memory, imagination, emotion, 
reasoning and will. Every specific activity, its mean¬ 
ing and its use, exhibit person in a creative act. If you 
have a sensation, this is your activity, created by your¬ 
self, whatever the occasion may be. Thus also with 
every other mental activity. You create the activity 
by putting it forth. You create its meaning by giving 
it relation to other activities. You create its use by 
the act of using it for some purpose. The conclusion 
is that you have created, or continually are now cre¬ 
ating, your own mind. It is not a gift to you; it is 
your own by creative right. You have also created 
all its meanings, and it is for you to determine its 
uses. All this means that person employs mind as the 
instrument by means of which it unfolds itself and 
creates the higher Universe. 

There is no other instrument through which these 
marvelous results can be achieved. Whatever man 
knows, he knows through some mental activity. 
Whatever man feels or desires or wills, the act in¬ 
volved is always a mental one. There is no mysteri¬ 
ous something in the make-up of person through which 
it may come into mysterious relations with other mys¬ 
terious existences — aside from mental operations. 
Mental operations give person all its interpretations of 
the Universe and all its possessions of beauty, truth, 
goodness. The mental operations of person are the 


290 


Creative Personality 


only nexus between itself and the Universe of every 
conceivable constitution. 

We may classify all the mental instruments of per¬ 
son in one word — Thought. Thought is the one mo¬ 
tive power of the universe of person. And thought 
is always a knowing, a complexity of knowing, a 
series or system of knowings. This brings us to a 
definite proposition for which this book stands. 

Every act of person in mind is a knowing act. To 
this proposition there are no exceptions. Whenever 
we mentally act, we in some way know. We here 
mean that every mental act involves a knowing; we 
mean that such act is a knowing, and it is absolutely 
nothing else. This marvelous thing, the knowing act, 
is the sole instrumentation by means of which we come 
into relation with externality and master a world, 
create a higher Universe and unfold the possibilities 
of Person. 


The Marvel of Knowing. 

The mechanism of the Fundamental Reality, hav¬ 
ing achieved person in a Universe, proceeds further 
with its unfoldment by the instrumentation of individ¬ 
ual personal development. Person stands, as it were, 
in the midst of the Universe and finds itself reacting 
thereto. This reacting is both physical and mental, 
but the latter is the cause of the former. The mental 
reacting of person to its worlds constitutes the nexus, 
or bridge, by means of which person unfolds its pos¬ 
sibilities. We call this nexus the knowing act of in- 


The Instruments of Personality 291 

dividualized intelligence. Concerning this act of 
knowing the following remarks may be made: 

Some sort of actions are always assailing mental 
person. These actions may proceed from without the 
body, or within the body, or within the mind. To 
such actions always occur some sort of reactions: re¬ 
action to an interior single activity or group of activi¬ 
ties in mind, or to any action within the body, or to 
any action from without the body. The reaction is 
a response, an acting-back, to that which has occa¬ 
sioned it. 

The reaction is itself an act of knowing. The act 
of knowing involves a meaning. Indeed, until mean¬ 
ing arises the reaction is not a knowing. We have 
seen that a meaning is a relation given by person to 
a mental action with reference to other mental action. 
Until we can place the activities of our mental rest¬ 
lessness in relation to each other, the mind is void of 
meanings and does not know. 

Every mental reaction, and every meaning in mind, 
is a thought. Thought is the motive-power nexus by 
which person fares through Reality, tests out, has ex¬ 
perience, masters worlds and unfolds. 

The preceding consideration may now be stated in 
a different manner. The general subject of knowing 
analyzes as follows: Apprehension, Comprehension, 
and Intensive Understanding. These acts are all acts 
of knowing, but in different phases. Let us observe — 

The word, “ Apprehension,” springs from two Latin 
words, ad —“ to ”— and prehejido —“ draw ”: “ to 
draw to.” By apprehension we “ draw to ” the mass of 


292 


Creative Personality 


our mental activities any external action upon us, and, 
in our reacting to it, place that reaction in such a way 
as to have a meaning. Thus, we apprehend a word, an 
idea, a bodily state, an object, a color, a force, and so 
on. The apprehension may be vague and confused, 
or clear and distinct, so far as concerns the whole of 
its object, but always at the core of it distinctness 
and clearness, so far as it goes, must obtain if it is 
to be real apprehension. Without this center of dis¬ 
tinctness and clearness, there is no apprehension, be¬ 
cause there is no meaning. One walking in a fog 
may observe a certain deepening of the grayness, and 
will then merely apprehend that deepening grayness, 
without making out form or object. If the observer 
now approaches the vague gray outline, there will 
follow apprehension after apprehension of various 
items of fact until the mind gets the meanings of all 
its reactions and finally comprehends the cause of the 
outline in the fog as a tree, or an animal, or a build¬ 
ing, for example. 

Knowing is also comprehending. This means a 
greater or lesser collection of apprehensions finally 
combined into a particular thought or meaning. The 
collection is now a system of meanings centering in 
some dominating meaning. Thus, we apprehend the 
innumerable facts of a house, and the mind gives to 
all these meanings the combining or dominating mean¬ 
ing, house. 

Somewhat arbitrarily we use the phrase, intensive 
understanding. The phrase here denotes that we 
pass beyond a superficial or general comprehension, 


The Instruments of Personality 


293 


and apprehend more and more of the ideas and facts 
involved in an object or a thought, or a system of ob¬ 
jects or thoughts, until it may be said that we have 
gotten all the meanings now possible on the subject. 4 

We now carry these considerations further on into 
certain great propositions. We now see that the one 
fundamental act of knowing is a mental reaction or 
thought having meaning. Our next question is this. 
What is the meaning of knowing? Or, What rela¬ 
tion shall we give to the act of knowing among all 
our other mental acts? The result of a knowing is 
some kind of knowledge. We have knowledge of ex¬ 
istences as facts, laws, principles, truths, and Reality. 
Let us define these words. A Fact is anything that is. 
A Law is a way things have of being and doing. A 
Principle is that which determines a thing to be what 
it is. In order to get our definition of Truth and 
Knowledge, we must now proceed in a somewhat 
roundabout way. 

All our mental activities occur, of course, within 
the mind. Mental activities do not go away from 
person, neither do external existences pass into per¬ 
son. When we apprehend, comprehend, and inten¬ 
sively understand, we interpret the actions of things 
and thought by inner processes. The actions of ex¬ 
ternal things and thoughts are signs, like a written 
page, to which we give meanings. A general name 
for these meanings is idea or conception. All classes 
of facts, laws, principles, truths, represent Reality. 
Now, we have this general idea, Reality, and we also 
have all sorts of other ideas concerning thoughts and 


294 


Creative Personality 


things. The question at this point arises, Are both 
these sets of ideas or conceptions, the general and 
the particular, correct or true? When we are satis¬ 
fied that this is the case, we say that we know, or that 
we have knowledge. We are now ready for our defini¬ 
tions of knowledge and truth. 

Knowledge is the certainty that our conceptions or 
ideas of thoughts, persons, things, facts, principles, 
laws, correspond with Reality. A truth is the cor¬ 
respondence between our conceptions and Reality so 
far as it appears to us to be certain. These propo¬ 
sitions require further consideration, as follows: 

Since we cannot get outside of ourselves and go 
a-hunting after Reality and its manifestations in any 
region beyond the mind, we are compelled to set up 
for ourselves a standard idea of Reality, and then to 
compare our ideas of things, thoughts and persons 
with this standard idea. When our idea of any partic¬ 
ular thing or existence seems to correspond with the 
standard idea of Reality, we say that we have a truth, 
and our certainty that the correspondence is correct 
is our knowledge on the subject. But the whole 
process is mentally interior. It is always also relative 
and a matter of degrees. In what way shall we be¬ 
come contented in the matter of our certainty of 
knowledge ? 

We must simply do the best that we can do in get¬ 
ting a conception of Reality that is satisfactory to our¬ 
selves. We must then make as sure as possible that 
any particular idea or thought of an object, or a law, 
etc., harmonizes with this idea of Reality. When we 


The Instruments of Personality 295 

have proceeded thus far, we are entitled to say, I know, 
I have knowledge. The one thing in our life which 
enables us to come to such a satisfactory state of men¬ 
tal certainty is experience. We know nothing, we 
have no knowledge, save as we have experience. 

We have said that all truth is relative, and that our 
certainty of knowledge is a matter of degree. It is 
not to be understood that there are no absolute truths, 
or that we can come to no positive certainty in know¬ 
ing. Truth is relative in the sense that it does not 
exist outside of mind. In a universe barren of mind 
there would be existences, conditions and operations, 
but no truths. Truth is also a mental correspondence 
of ideas. External to mind there is Reality, but mind 
must form a conception of it, and this conception dif¬ 
fers in different minds, and also differs in different 
stages in the development of any one mind. These 
facts make truth relative to personal history. The state¬ 
ment that truth is a mental correspondence is itself a 
truth, which is relative to your mental condition and 
power and to your conception of Reality and your con¬ 
ception of any object or activity or principle, and so 
on. An African dwarf has some conceptions concern¬ 
ing Reality and things, but they are not even similar 
to the conceptions of an Oxford professor, and the 
ideas and mental correspondences of the latter may 
conceivably change from time to time. Nevertheless, 
the human mind is so constitutionally adjusted to the 
universe that it must be able to arrive at some ideas 
and correspondences which yield a sense of absolute 
truth. Since the human mind and the Universe are 


296 


Creative Personality 


manifestations of one Reality, we must assume a 
fundamental harmony between the nature of mind and 
the nature of the Universe, and hold that it is ulti¬ 
mately possible for mind to form correct conceptions 
of Reality in all its various expressions in material 
and non-material existences. For example, it is a 
fact-truth that America has been discovered, and it is 
a law-truth that every action demands an actor. 
From a truth that is merely relative to an individual 
person to a truth which all capable persons must feel 
is absolute, there is a long series of mental correspond¬ 
ences which are relative because experience has not 
developed universal certainty. 

The certainty that our conceptions correspond to 
Reality is also relative in the sense that it is a matter 
of degree. We say of some things, or facts, or propo¬ 
sitions, that they may be so, that we are inclined to 
think they are so, that the probabilities are that they 
are so, that we believe them to be so, or that we are 
perfectly sure of them. Our mental attitude thus 
ranges from one of admitted possibility on through 
probability to indubitable certitude. It is a possibility, 
for example, that physical life exists on other planets 
than the earth, but we have no certain knowledge on 
this subject; it is a probability that the scientific notion 
of the universal ether is true, but the fact is not devoid 
of some uncertainty. Nevertheless, the laws of mathe¬ 
matics seem to be absolutely unquestionable. The 
certainty of our knowledge, therefore, is largely rela¬ 
tive to the individual mind and to human develop¬ 
ment. Nevertheless, both as regards truth and knowl- 


*The Instruments of Personality 297 

edge, we are entitled to stand squarely for such truth 
and knowledge as we definitely believe in, provided we 
are reasonably sure that we have done the best pos¬ 
sible in our search for truth and our quest for knowl¬ 
edge. And always the goal of experience must be to 
get at absolute truths and certainty of knowledges. 

The Instruments of Knowing. 

It is by the process of knowing that Reality sets over 
against itself in person itself as not person. Reality 
has now individualized its possibilities of conscious¬ 
ness. It may now contemplate itself, discover itself 
and more and more unfold its intelligence. Prior to 
the appearance of person, it is simply the all-and-in-all, 
and cannot accomplish these results. But in person it 
manifests mind and consciousness, and so is able to 
set up externally and to develop person by reaction 
thereto. At the core of the matter, this reaction is 
knowing. The instruments by which person, that is, 
you, may react in knowing to the actions of the ex¬ 
ternal world, are the physical sense-organs and the 
mental “ faculties/’ We consider these instruments in 
their order, treating them generally, however, and not 
going into particulars unnecessary to the present dis¬ 
cussion. 

I. The Physical Instruments. These instru¬ 
ments are the sense-organs of sight, hearing, smell, 
taste and touch. 

Roughly speaking, the organs of sight consist of the 
eye-balls, the retina, the optic nerve-tracts connecting 
therewith and extending backward to a system of 


298 


Creative Personality 


nerve-cells located in the posterior portion of the brain. 
The sole function of a nerve is irritability, that is, the 
power of excitation under external stimulus and of 
transmitting this excitation throughout its substance. 
It is the action of light upon the retina which induces 
vision. Waves or undulations in the universal ether, 
within a limited range of lengths and numbers per sec¬ 
ond and traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per sec¬ 
ond, impinge upon the retina and excite its rods and 
cones and the optic nerve, thus inducing a transmis¬ 
sion of stimulation back into the visual nerve-area. 
This excitation of the visual area induces a mental 
reaction to which we give the meaning, sight. Thus 
we see light. The etheric waves fall upon various ob¬ 
jects and are in part absorbed by such objects, and in 
part reflected from such objects. It is by means of 
reflected light that we perceive objects, forms, colors, 
motions, and so on. Thus we have the raw material 
furnished, so to speak, by light acting upon the visual 
organs of sight, which raw material we know, appre¬ 
hend, and to which, in the complexity of knowing, we 
give all the meanings involved in vision. By sight¬ 
knowing and experience person attains truth and 
knowledge made possible through the action of light, 
and embraces more and more of the Reality of the uni¬ 
verse within its own possessions, so that Reality thus 
passes over more and more into personal life the ulti¬ 
mate goal of all things. And this whole process is a 
knowing, and nothing other than a knowing. 

Similarly with the organ of hearing. We have the 
external and internal ears, the auditory nerve-tract, 


The Instruments of Personality 299 

and the brain-area involved in hearing. Atmospheric 
waves, within a limited range of length, numbers and 
speed, are gathered by the external ear and finally 
excite the tympanum and the auditory nerve-tract, 
which in turn, excited throughout its length, stimulates 
nerve-cells in the appropriate brain area into an activ¬ 
ity which we interpret as hearing. Sound is mental 
reaction in the raw to action upon us of atmospheric 
waves. This general reaction raises in mind meanings 
worked over by experience into sensations and ideas 
such as sound, differing kinds of sound, all noises, dis¬ 
cords, harmonies, music, speech, “ Voices of Nature.” 
This process is also a knowing, and nothing other than 
a knowing. By the knowings of hearing, again, Reality 
makes over into personal life and person makes over 
into Reality in its higher manifestations. The know¬ 
ing is a reaction of person to externality by means of 
which the Fundamental Reality more and more realizes 
its possibilities for individualized intelligence. 

Similarly with reference to smell, taste, touch. We 
have here the appropriate sense organs, nerve-tracts 
and brain-areas. In smell and taste we have an action 
of matter in minute forms upon the nerves of smell 
and of dissolving forms upon the taste-buds and nerves 
of taste, and mental reactions thereto that are mean¬ 
ings which experience works over into kinds of sensa¬ 
tion and innumerable sense-perceptions. In the case 
of touch we have the action of matter in various states 
in nerve-ends distributed throughout the bodily sur¬ 
face, and reactions of mind thereto that constitute all 
the meanings involved, which, in turn, are worked over 


300 


Creative Personality 


by experience into knowledge, such as hardness, resist¬ 
ance, form, temperature, and so on. The reactions 
and the worked-over meanings are nothing other than 
knowings. Reality has again passed over into person 
and by the instrumentation indicated has passed over 
into the higher manifestations of itself, as person in 
the same process has passed over into greater develop¬ 
ments of its powers. All the knowings resulting from 
the reaction of mental person induced by the action 
upon it of externality through the sense organs are 
thus seen to be a system of instrumentations by which 
person mentally lives, uses the world, and makes its 
way onward through Reality which it more and more 
absorbs into itself. 

II. The Mental “ Faculties/’ It is said that 
the senses give us the “ raw material ” of our knowl¬ 
edge. This means that through the sense-organs we 
have the beginnings of knowing, or knowing in a pri¬ 
mary and general form which the mind through ex¬ 
perience develops, refines, and classifies. Even in its 
primary general form the knowing is at its core clear 
and distinct so far as it goes, and is thus complete. 
You either have a sensation or you do not; there is 
no raw sensation, no incomplete sensation, when you 
have a sensation at all, because your mental reaction 
is just That — a sensation. There is no raw or in¬ 
complete perception of an external object, except in 
the sense that the perception may not include the whole 
of the object, or the object as separated from other 
objects, or all the details of the object; but under any 
of these exceptions the perception as such is itseli, 


The Instruments of Personality 301 

and completely precisely That — a perception. All 
this means that when you know through the sense- 
organs, you actually and completely do know so far as 
you go. We cannot think of a half-knowing, or a 
tenth-part knowing. Knowing is a mental reaction to 
some other action, and it either definitely is or it 
definitely is not. But no act of knowing ever em¬ 
braces at once all that it may embrace. Moreover, 
there is always the possibility that every act of know¬ 
ing may become associated with other acts of knowing, 
and that all our knowings may become more and more 
inter-related into greater and greater complexities of 
knowledge. The process by which we attain the latter 
results may be called the working-over of raw ma¬ 
terial, and it is conducted by mental experience. This 
mental experience involves the use of the various 
established ways of acting and knowing which we call 
the mental “ faculties/’ Let us investigate these “ fac¬ 
ulties ” as instruments by means of which person uses 
and absorbs the worlds about him, observing, however, 
that it is our purpose here merely to suggest that our 
mental activities are invariably acts of knowing, and 
not to elaborate upon them. 

(1.) Sensation. Sensations are induced fyy vari¬ 
ous physical states or activities, but consist of mental 
awareness of such states. One has not sensation with¬ 
out knowing it, and the knowing is the sensation. It 
is almost if not quite impossible to recognize a pure 
sensation,— a mere Thatness of the body,— and we 
have to form an abstract notion of it by imagining the 
mental state of a very young infant. Here, as nearly 


302 


Creative Personality 


as we can suppose, the infant's sensations are element¬ 
ary mental states induced by elementary physical 
states. If all your mental activities could be reduced 
to a mere' awareness of luminousness, this would be 
an example of pure sensation. It is commonly said 
that sensation is elementary, that it cannot be analyzed, 
as though this were an exceptional fact. But, if we 
remember that all mental acts are primarily acts of 
knowing in the sense of apprehension, we see that in 
the last analysis all the “ mental faculties ” involved 
elementary activities of mind. In elementary sensa¬ 
tion there is a knowing of a physical state without a 
knowledge of that knowing, without a name for it, 
without a reference to the state or the cause thereof. 
In simple sensation we know, but we do not know that 
we know. This mere knowing is the beginning of the 
nexus over which person passes in coming to self- 
consciousness and the conscious possession of world; 
it is the first element of the instrumentation by means 
of which Reality passes through psychic factor into 
individualized intelligence and thence into person and 
beyond. 

(2.) Sense-Perception. Sense-perception is usu¬ 
ally associated with a number of other mental activi¬ 
ties. There is sensation, which may be only dimly or 
may be vividly known, there is a reference of the 
sense-state to some occasion of it, and there is a mean¬ 
ing or a set of meanings which give place and name — 
at least idea — to that occasion. The occasion may 
be an object, a quality, a movement, etc., in some way 
affecting one or more of the sense-organs, and the oc- 


The Instruments of Personality 303 

casion is perceived because there is in mind a knowing 
of the sensation, a reference thereof to the occasion 
and a meaning given to the reference in terms of ob¬ 
ject, quality, movement, and so on. If we remember 
that the meaning is really the reference and that the 
sensation is the occasion of the meaning, we see that 
the perception is in itself a single act, knowing. Thus, 
we perceive a tree or a motion or a color, and only 
perceive tree, motion, color in the single act of appre¬ 
hending. Everything associated with this one act is 
essential to the perception. Our perceptions may be 
complete in the sense that there is an almost instan¬ 
taneous embracing by apprehension of any Realities 
affecting sense-organ, but it would be possible to an¬ 
alyze the complex into its constituent element, each one 
of which would then turn out to be a knowing. What 
has been said of sense-perception is true of any mental 
act of perceiving, say, an idea, a picture, and a mo¬ 
tion, or a feeling of volition. Perception is thus a 
further phase of instrumentation by means of which 
we make Reality a part of personal development. 

(3.) Consciousness. Consciousness is not a basis 
or background or field of mental activities, but is, 
rather, the sum-total of our mental activities in any 
present instant. For example, sensation does not ap¬ 
pear in consciousness; it so far forth constitutes con¬ 
sciousness — a sensation-consciousness. So, the act of 
perceiving is a perception-consciousness. Thus with 
every other mental activity; each constitutes a con¬ 
sciousness. We are conscious by means of, and in the 
act of, sensation, perception, attention, memory, and 


304 


Creative Personality 


so on. This discloses the fact that consciousness re¬ 
duces to a knowing, or a complex of knowings. 
When every act of knowing disappears, consciousness 
ceases. Self-activities that are pre-mental constitute 
each a consciousness which cannot immediately be 
brought under the control of self-consciousness and 
made objects of direct observation. They are a type 
of consciousness in the general sense. In these we 
know, but do not know that we know. In ordinary 
consciousness we know, and are always capable of 
knowing that we know. In self-consciousness there is 
a mental act which has the meaning, or is the meaning, 
“ the I senses, perceives, remembers/’ and so on. 
This also in its last analysis is a knowing of the self 
by the self. Thus our instrumentation goes on. 

(4.) Attention and Concentration. Concentration 
is intensified and narrowed attention. In attention, 
whether through sense-organs or mental activities, 
there is usually what is called a “ field,” in which vari¬ 
ous objects are embraced, but having a center on which 
attention is focused. Thus, we may hear many sounds 
or harmonies within a certain limited range of con¬ 
scious-recognition, but we give conscious heed to a few 
of them only, or perhaps to one of them alone. So, 
also, we may observe, with differing degrees of direct¬ 
ness and intentness, one or more objects in a “field” 
of vision, meanwhile being more or less aware of many 
other objects within that “field.” We attend when 
we more or less focalize our mental activities. The 
more we thus focalize our mental activities and per¬ 
sist therein, the more we pass from mere attention to 


The Instruments of Personality 305 

concentration. Observe, that the so-called concentra¬ 
tion of certain new-thought teachings which seeks to 
put our thought away and to reduce the mind to a 
vacuum, is not concentration at all. It is the opposite, 
and has no value whatever. Attention and concentra¬ 
tion are merely uses to which we put our mental pow¬ 
ers. In fact, every directed mental activity is an act 
of attention, or of concentration if intense and per¬ 
sistent, and the attention is the activity itself. And 
always, when we attend, we know, since there is no 
other meaning to be given a mental activity than a 
knowing. 

(5.) Memory. The act of remembering is a com¬ 
bination of knowings, but each knowing is itself, and 
nothing other. There is a mental activity which is 
more or less a perfect repetition of some previous ac¬ 
tivity in the mind’s history. This repetition-activity 
person knows or apprehends. There is a knowing 
that the activity is a repetition. There is therefore a 
knowing of the idea, a past. There is a knowing that 
the self has previously existed and that it now con¬ 
tinues. The repetition, of course, may include one or 
a number of the previous activities. When these ele¬ 
ments of knowing are all embraced in one mental state, 
we say that we remember, or recall, so and so. The 
recall may be spontaneous or the result of effort. The 
act of recall is the act of recognition, and this word, 
re-cognition, means, to re-know. The recall or re¬ 
cognition is a knowing that the mental activities in¬ 
volved are repetitions, more or less correct, of previous 
mental action. Thus, the whole of memory resolves 


306 


Creative Personality 


into elements each of which is a knowing. Here we 
have instrumentation which carries, as it were, a past 
over into the present, and makes it possible for person 
to profit by experience and carry the present into a 
future. In the sum-total of such personal instru¬ 
mentation by means of memory, Reality carries a uni¬ 
versal past over into a universal future of all-embrac¬ 
ing unfoldment. 

(6.) Imagination. We do not employ this word 
as falling under the scope of memory at all. Remem¬ 
bered ideas, acts, states, pictures, etc., are, indeed, em¬ 
ployed by imagination, but they do not constitute the 
mental process, imagination. A carpenter must needs 
use material in the building of a house, yet no one 
could say that the materials apart from the building- 
process are either the house or the construction of it. 
Imagination constructs new combinations out of re¬ 
peated previous mental activities. It is impossible for 
the human mind to imagine any combination of ideas 
or states or movements where the elements of the com¬ 
bination have previously not been known. The act of 
recognizing the previously known elements is an act 
of memory, but the construction of the combination is 
an act of imagination. This combination the person 
who creates it knows as a total, and he also knows 
the mental processes involved in the creation, in 
the sense of apprehending the creative activities. 
Whether imagination combines previous ideas or pic¬ 
tures, or, by such creations carried on as trial-initia¬ 
tives, acts in the interest of a purpose, every activity 
involved is a knowing, and in the last analysis, nothing 


The Instruments of Personality 30 7 

other than a knowing. Our analysis of imagination 
shows that since it is a creative process and combines 
repetitions of previous activities and into new wholes, 
it acts as a nexus of instrumentation by means of 
which Reality passes over in person to new and higher 
expressions of itself, and also by means of which per¬ 
son achieves development. 

(7.) Reasoning. In the process of reasoning we 
draw conclusions, inferences, judgments. These we 
state in mental propositions of fact, or law, or princi¬ 
ple, or truth, or belief, and the like. The process con¬ 
sists of a mental consideration of certain specific 
things which we now know, or of conclusions which 
we already know or believe, until we arrive at some 
general conclusion covering all the matters in hand, 
which conclusion gives us a degree of mental satis¬ 
faction. In the consideration of specific facts, etc., 
for a final conclusion, the reasoning process is induc¬ 
tive. In the consideration of previously stated propo¬ 
sitions, or premises, for a final conclusion, the process 
is deductive. In our conclusions, inferences and judg¬ 
ments we reach one definite statement which is made 
possible by “ the real interdependence of things con¬ 
formably to law.” The idea of law is itself a conclu¬ 
sion from our knowledge that all existences have cer¬ 
tain uniform ways of being and doing, and that this is 
true of our mental constitution. The mind constitu¬ 
tionally harmonizes itself, or tends to harmonize itself, 
with the constitution of manifested Reality. If we 
could imagine ourselves to be a mere mass of lawless 
activities existing in a lawless Universe, we see that 


308 


Creative Personality 


it wotrld be utterly impossible to form any conclusion 
whatever. This would be true because the mind 
could then have no definite established knowledge, and 
could therefore come to no state of mental balance 
and satisfaction. For the reason that we know that the 
Universe, including ourselves, is a system of law, we 
say that the mind is so constituted that when it is pre¬ 
sented with sufficient evidence it necessarily concludes 
so and so. The necessity indicated springs also from 
the fact that we already know through experience cer¬ 
tain things, principles, laws, and so on. In this knowl¬ 
edge we have precepts, single ideas of individual exist¬ 
ences derived through the action of a single sense; 
concepts, general or class ideas derived from the oper¬ 
ation of all the senses, of thought and experience, and 
covering all the existences of a given kind; j udgments, 
or conclusions as above stated. The reasoning 
process, therefore, is an act of knowing both the ele¬ 
ments involved and the induced or the deduced con¬ 
clusions. The knowing is of the degrees of corre¬ 
spondence with Reality previously suggested, possibly 
correct, probably correct, surely correct. The sliding 
scale of the degrees of uncertainty to certainty is a 
measure of our mental balance or satisfaction con¬ 
cerning the matters in hand, according to the mind’s 
native abilities, training and development. But in any 
event, the knowing is satisfactory for the individual 
and is legitimate so far as his reasoning goes, although 
later it may be rejected for a different or apparently 
more certain act of knowing. From these considera¬ 
tions we conclude that in reasoning we have a process 


The Instruments of Personality 309 

of instrumentation by means of which, in connection 
with other mental activities, person passes over or 
makes over out of the realm of mere sensation into 
that of the highest mentality and the wide embrace of 
the great departments of human knowledge and devel¬ 
opment. 

(8.) Emotions. We employ the word emotion to 
include such mental states as feelings, passions and 
emotions. These states should be distinguished from 
those induced by the sense-organs and physical con¬ 
ditions, which are, properly speaking, sensations, 
although they may give rise to emotions. A mental 
state is a mental activity or a series or system of ac¬ 
tivities. In emotions we have mental activities that 
are in a degree satisfactory or in a degree unsatisfac¬ 
tory, and are usually associated with corresponding 
physical states or activities affecting the self — sensa¬ 
tions. The emotions proper consist of mental activi¬ 
ties in interaction and dominated by some supreme 
activity. The mental activities are thoughts or ideas, 
which are satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as compared 
with a standard of welfare or otherwise set up by 
the individual. The dominating activity in an emo¬ 
tion is an idea which is more or less suggestive of, and 
creates around itself, so to speak, other ideas of a 
more or less similar character. Illustrations: a man 
has the idea that his betrothed is ill, and this idea raises 
other ideas of fear and worrying imaginations, and 
the cluster of ideas, which are all unsatisfactory, in¬ 
duces a set of physical sensations that enhance his 
dissatisfaction, until, if not controlled, all these activi- 


310 


Creative Personality 


ties increase to a state of mental turmoil. Thus al¬ 
ways with our emotions: they are no merely passive 
states, but are systems of mental activities or ideas 
dominated and induced by some central idea without 
which they could not occur. The emotions may raise 
the sensations, or the sensations may raise the emo¬ 
tions, but always the emotions are mental activities 
that analyze into thought, agreeable or otherwise ac¬ 
cording to some standard of welfare held by the in¬ 
dividual. In emotion, therefore, we know; — the emo¬ 
tion is knowing. Person now goes into a process of 
instrumentation by means of which it develops the 
experiences of pleasure and happiness, or of discom¬ 
fort, displeasure or pain or distress, and thus learns 
to standardize more and more its ideas of welfare in 
harmony with the one necessarily true universal stand¬ 
ard, universal harmony. The significance of emotions 
is the fact that in them person enlarges the scope of 
its activities, embraces more of Reality, comes to 
greater comprehension of existence, and may learn 
how to live at its best. We may measure personal 
development and the standard of personal welfare by 
one’s pleasures and joys, and by the intensity of his 
emotions and their relation to the universal harmonies 
of life. If the pleasures are coarse and temporary, 
if the happiness is vague and little more than com¬ 
fort, and if the standard of welfare is inferior, person 
and personal life correspond. Such an existence 
transcends the animal life in but scanty degree. If 
the pleasures are refined and have a capacity for per¬ 
manence, if the happiness is clear and distinct and 


The Instruments of Personality 311 

intense, and of a nature which can feed upon itself 
and only grow by the process, and if the standard of 
welfare has the meaning of universal harmony and 
happiness, person has come to deep and broad and 
rich consciousness, and life is marvelous in value and 
power. In other words, we measure person, for one 
thing, by its emotions, that is to say, by its standard 
of welfare, and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction at¬ 
tending or given by its emotional ideas. In the emo¬ 
tions, then, Reality, having achieved person, tends 
through personal life to manifest itself in its highest 
form. 

(9.) Will. Will is any idea so dominant as to 
induce and control activity. We may here say that 
will is free in the sense that the dominating idea may 
always be rejected or entertained, and that the su¬ 
preme Dominating Idea is this, “ Whatever set or 
deadlock of ideas may occur at any time, I always 
break up the situation by the arbitrary action of the 
Idea of Freedom.” It may be true that the breaking 
up of a mental deadlock by the idea, “ I do as I like,” 
is in the last analysis determination but this kind 
and measure of freedom are all that human life re¬ 
quires for unlimited development. Will is Dynamic 
Idea. This idea is a knowing. If it were not a know¬ 
ing it could have no existence and occasion no ac¬ 
tivity. By the will-knowing and all the knowings in¬ 
volved in its domination, Reality bridges over from 
sheer mechanism to intelligent self-direction and un- 
foldment in person, and person issues out of mere 
animality and becomes a god. When the Universe 


312 


Creative Personality 


achieves this godness in finite person, it gives Deity 
moral opportunity and justifies the Universe. 

Having completed our general survey of the instru¬ 
ments, that is the complex activities in knowing, by 
means of which person comes more and more into 
mental embrace and control of worlds, let us now 
briefly reiterate our proposition that the knowing and 
development of person are invariably reactions to ex¬ 
ternal activity. 

All Knowing a Reactive Product. 

At this point we wish to emphasize the fact that all 
our knowing is a product of reaction to external ac¬ 
tivity. When we understand this, we begin to find 
our place in the universe, and to see that development 
and success in life are matters which we may and can 
take in hand and control. Let us review this general 
process of reaction, beginning with the earliest living 
organism. 

This organism is a mass of protoplasm, formed of 
certain elements. This mass is a chemical compound, 
and the compound is the result of the inter-reaction 
of its chemical elements. The result is the exhibition 
of the phenomena of what we call life. Life may 
be an entity, but it is never dissociated from chemical 
reaction. In chemical reaction there is a release of 
energy and a rearrangement of the constituents of the 
elements. The exhibits of life result, then, from re¬ 
action. Somewhere along the line of life’s continuous 
manifestation, psychic factor appears. In the view of 
this book it is of no importance whether life and 


The Instruments of Personality 313 

psychic factor are separable from matter or not, since 
both are expressions of our Fundamental Reality. 
Mechanically the Reality makes to life through the 
interaction of its manifestations, and mechanically the 
Reality makes to what we call psychic factor through 
the interaction of the elements of matter exhibiting 
life. 

Psychic factor appears when, under certain condi¬ 
tions, certain chemical elements interact among them¬ 
selves and react to environment. The organism seems 
to be at first as identical in substance throughout as a 
chemical compound, and performs its functions, that is, 
reacts in similar ways, anywhere throughout its struc¬ 
ture. In time this type of life develops functional 
parts or organs, and specializes therein its different 
kinds of activity. The outcome is always the result 
of reaction to environment, the reaction becoming 
special and definite, and so developing the functional 
parts or organs. The final result in the case of man 
is the development of a given type of body, many 
special functional organs, and its various members. 

The human sense-organs are all the results of a long 
history of the reaction of psychic factor to specific 
kinds of activity upon it by environment. Thus, light, 
or etheric waves, assail the periphery of a primitive 
organism, and a process of visual development is begun 
which, after ages of increasingly complex reactions, 
results in the human eye. Thus, also, it is the action 
of sound, or atmospheric waves, which induces a long 
series of reactions becoming more and more complex, 
that results finally in the human ear. Similarly, the 


314 


Creative Personality 


organs of smell, taste and touch issue out of an age¬ 
long series of reactions with different kinds of external 
activity. The members of the human body come to 
increasing perfection, also, through greater and greater 
differentiation of body-reaction with external exist¬ 
ences, compelled by the necessity of sustaining the 
organism and the necessity of maintaining and devel¬ 
oping mentality as created by psychic factor. The law 
of this whole process is, No development without Re¬ 
action , and the truth is, All reactions in the develop¬ 
ment of and in the use of the human organism are 
conducted by psychic factor. 

But always in this general process psychic reactions 
occur of a mental order, becoming more and more 
complex, yet more and more specific and functional. 
The total outcome is the human mind. The native 
restlessness of psychic factor which is a manifest of 
Reality at first vague and incomplete, but becoming 
more and more definite and perfect, expresses its na¬ 
ture all along in a tendency toward individual and 
self-controlling intelligence, that is, toward a system 
of reactions in knowing. The capacity for knowing, 
exhibiting at first in a vague animal sensation and 
going on to an awareness of animal needs, continues 
to realize itself through increasingly complex know¬ 
ing reactions, and finally establishes habits of such re¬ 
actions in definite ways which constitute mind. In 
the manifestations of Reality in psychic factor react¬ 
ing to environment, which is itself manifest Reality, 
we see, therefore, this outcome: Reality reacting 
with itself through the instrumentations of psychic 


The Instruments of Personality 315 

factor and developing mind, and thus unfolding its 
greater possibilities. Thus, again, the law appears: 
No development save through reaction, and the truth 
emerges that all such reaction is conducted by unfold¬ 
ing psychic factor. 

We may more broadly emphasize the proposition 
before us by reference to human conduct and life. 
Whatever you as an individual are, or think, or do, 
signifies all sorts of reactions of your body, your mind, 
your total person, to men and worlds around you, or, 
it may be added, to your own innerstates and activi¬ 
ties. We cannot isolate a single human action which 
is not a reaction to some other action. The law of 
inertia holds: no action without reaction, no reaction 
without action. This is true of all manifestations of 
Reality. How Reality, as we have defined it, can 
begin to manifest within itself, we do not, of course, 
know. If, now, your personal conduct is a product 
of reactions, human life in the general sense must 
also be so interpreted. All community life, all tribal 
life, all national life, all world-life, all barbarism, and 
all civilization with its great departments of activity 
and knowledge, are simply complexities of reactions 
of individuals, tribes and nations with environment 
and among themselves. 

Thus is indicated the place and function of human 
person in the Universe. Each one of us is, as it were, 
a target of the activities of a universe. In one way 
and another every existence throughout all worlds as¬ 
sails us with its activities. Within the narrower 
range of home or community, or nation, or world, each 


316 


Creative Personality 


of us is incessantly assailed by innumerable actions 
of existences, and person. Conduct and life are all 
complex systems of our own reactions thereto. At 
the center of any such system of reactions operates the 
one climacteric system of reactions which we call 
knowings. Our intelligence and personal develop¬ 
ment and life and success are measured by just that 
central system of reactions. Is this great complex, 
growing, potent and self-controlled ? Our mental sys¬ 
tem of reactions to environment and the Universe an¬ 
swers the question. But answers the question in part 
only. One other phase of reaction in knowing remains 
for brief consideration. This variety of reactions is 
usually referred to sentiment and religion, but it is 
here insisted that the reference should be regarded as 
purely incidental and as indicating the traditions of 
imperfect thinking. Let us now observe: 

The Reaction of Love. 

Love is an emotion, but, as we have seen, it is really 
a composite of ideas centering in some one dominating 
idea. The ideas are of a satisfactory nature, that is, 
they harmonize with other elements in the individual 
mental life. They are usually associated with or in¬ 
duced by various physical sensations, but this is not 
always the case. One may have love for the human 
race and exhibit the fact in philanthropy, yet only 
occasionally be conscious of any sensation resulting 
therefrom. The dominating idea is here human wel¬ 
fare, and this idea develops other ideas concerning the 


The Instruments of Personality 31 7, 

welfare of given individuals. All these ideas in this 
type of person harmonize with his mental make-up, 
and the harmony constitutes his pleasure, although, 
at times, such ideas will develop physical reactions 
with more or less excitement and agreeableness. In 
the constitution of the Universe this type of the love- 
thought is as truly a power of the nature of things as 
gravity is a force. We may analyze patriotism, or the 
love of country, with similar conclusions, and then 
discover that love is the force-action of the Funda¬ 
mental Reality; it is a sentiment, but it is as truly 
dynamic as anything in the science of Physics. In 
the individualized love of friendship appear the ideas 
of approval, attraction, service and welfare, with vari¬ 
ous associated ideas and physical sensations which 
harmonize with all the activities of the mind and are 
therefore agreeable. Similarly, also, with those types 
of love which we refer to family life or the blood- 
relationship. In our analysis all these types of love 
are harmonious thoughts, and as thoughts they 
definitely and constitutionally affect Reality and its 
manifestations throughout environment and the whole 
universe. If we define love as mental activity having 
the meanings of sympathy or harmony with the wel¬ 
fare of its object, we see that all love-ideas are in har¬ 
mony with the goal of the Universe. Universal har¬ 
mony and happiness must have more or less of the 
power and drift of the universal nature of things. 
Let us, then, no longer class love as a sentiment or a 
phase of religion, which may be discarded if we will, 
and disregarded in practical affairs from gardening to 


318 


Creative Personality 


government, and remember that love is precisely a 
cluster of mental actions to which the nature of things 
must react and respond for the welfare of the lover 
and the whole universe. 

A further type of love manifests in the sex-life. 
We believe that sex is confined to physical conditions, 
and that its main outcome is the perpetuation of the 
race. We do not accept distinctions of sex as in¬ 
herent in psychic factor or mentality. It may be said 
that the basis of sex-life consists of physical differ¬ 
ences and functions, but these differences and func¬ 
tions give rise to the most beautiful, wonderful and 
powerful reactions in mind of which we have knowl¬ 
edge. It is almost certain that they lie at the heart 
of all human development, since it is difficult to be¬ 
lieve that modern civilization could possibly have re¬ 
sulted from the activities of a single-sex race. 

It would seem that most sex-unions succeed only 
in realizing the possibilities of sex-love in the per¬ 
petuation of the species and in the development of 
certain ideas, such as fidelity, devotion, duty, etc., 
which are of great value and exert the power of their 
type, yet do not exhibit the glory and the dynamics of 
two human lives brought together by perfect harmony 
of character and thought. The common results, how¬ 
ever, reveal the action of a power, which, even in 
ordinary life is prophetic of the greater things. In 
all its phases the sex-force is wellnigh irresistible in 
its action, and when the higher manifestations of the 
two lives, harmonious in mind and body, give it noblest 
expression, it becomes a creator of the greatest type. 


The Instruments of Personality 319 

For then it inspires human activities which send the 
world far on toward its goal. Ideas of the finest 
order then cluster into wonderful constellations of 
emotions having as their central dominating thought 
ideals and purposes which sublime life and make it 
potent for every good. Let us remark on this sub¬ 
ject: 

We repudiate the notion of human inferiority or 
superiority due in any sense to differences in sex. If 
woman seems in any way to be inferior, the matter 
is either a merely individual case, or is due to the 
fact that woman has had no opportunity for develop¬ 
ment adequate through the possibilities of her nature. 
Moreover, she may surpass man in many respects the 
value of which he does not recognize. And, above 
all, her mate in marriage may utterly fail to call out 
the best expression of her highest nature. This in¬ 
dicates the critical thing in sex-union. The woman 
may also fail to call out the noblest in the man. We 
suggest, therefore: 

When two people attract each other and think of 
uniting their lives, they may be drawn together by 
physical attractiveness, or by sex-magnetism, or by 
deeper personal characteristics, or by all such factors. 
Unless the last factor is dominant, we shall have an 
imperfect union. The results will be the ordinary out¬ 
comes familiar to all. But when, in addition to per¬ 
sonal attractiveness and sex-magnetism, each individ¬ 
ual is drawn to the other by those deeper personal 
characteristics which reveal human life at its best, 
and when each calls forth in the other a corresponding 


320 


Creative Personality 


expression, we have then a union that can never fail 
in happiness and power so long as each, continues to 
develop and to call forth and exhibit the best of which 
each is capable. The attracting force will then prove 
itself the most potent, far-reaching, and marvelous 
force in all human life. 

In all associational life there is action and reaction. 
Marriage especially exhibits this fact. We have here 
the most complicated physical and mental action by 
each person upon the other, and a corresponding re¬ 
action. In the midst of all this action and reaction, 
there may be repressions and conflicts, or there may 
be inspiration and harmony. The former results dem¬ 
onstrate that human life is tangled, confused, ham¬ 
pered and bound, and we believe that, where other 
considerations permit, the two lives would better go 
apart. We so believe because of a conviction that 
neither life will lose by the separation, but that both 
lives will gain thereby through the action of Universal 
Life. For always, when the reactions of two lives 
upon each other bring discord and unhappiness into 
expression, the result is inevitably a failure in each 
of highest development. Where the harmony which 
we have suggested obtains, there is ideal marriage. 
The reactions of each to the other now tend to bring 
out the best in each, and to minister to happiness, and 
to multiply individual power. 

In the relationship of marriage we have a very com¬ 
plex system of knowings. There is the knowing of 
acquaintance and understanding. There is the know¬ 
ing of physical contact, and there are all the knowings 


The Instruments of Personality 321 

of mental and personal life which constitute the com¬ 
mon and hidden meanings of each to the other. In 
ideal marriage there is a knowing which attaches a 
meaning, or a complex of meanings, to human exist¬ 
ence which no other human relation can induce, and 
the depth and scope of which the mind of man has 
never encompassed. 

In the sex-union of two human beings our Funda¬ 
mental Reality passes on into individual after individ¬ 
ual through the long history of man, and so maintains 
its expression in person. By means of the perpetua¬ 
tion of the race it also passes over, through a long and 
intricate series of instrumentations in knowing, from 
higher to higher forms of personal unfoldment. In 
any marriage of a satisfactory type there is a degree 
of this instrumentation. As marriage approaches the 
ideal, the advance toward the goal of universal wel¬ 
fare and happiness becomes more assured, because 
now Reality finds freest and fullest expression in the 
highest forms of human action and knowing, and so 
brings out its deepest, richest and most potent mean¬ 
ings. It would seem that our universal ideal must 
be a type of human life in which every action is in¬ 
spired by and is inspirational of something greater 
than itself, in which every action is a perfect joy, in 
which every action is a struggle of the nature of things 
to exhibit its best possibilities throughout the whole 
Universe. 

Having now completed our general survey of what 
we call instrumentation, the question of the practical 
man confronts us with imperious force: What is the 


322 


Creative Personality 


value of this discussion to the everyday life? We 
answer as follows: 

Practical Outcomes. 

The present chapter is a phase of our total study, 
and the work and the knowledge involved in the study 
will be practical in value so far as applied to the 
individual life. All knowledge has its practical appli¬ 
cations, sooner or later, as such. The knowledge of 
self is important for the reason that it tends to bring 
about a better understanding of how to use that self 
in any kind of work. It is a weakness in our life that 
we are always trying to accomplish things without un¬ 
derstanding the powers we. use and the best methods 
for using them. The more you know of your person 
the better can you employ your abilities in whatever 
you undertake. Moreover, the mental discipline of 
this study has the value of developing and training 
your entire personality. Some one has said, “ Es ist 
besser immer etwas zu wissen,” and our study will 
demonstrate that “ It is better always to know some¬ 
thing.” 

Moreover, Psychology centers all science and all life. 
Without person the world has no meaning because it 
has no utility. All sciences have some sort of prefer¬ 
ence to mental person, since the more we comprehend 
them the more do we seek to know their relation to 
man, and our final understanding of them takes into 
them the explanatory significance which they derive 
from the relation of their facts to human life. All 
human science is a demand that man should know 


The Instruments of Personality 323 

himself, since he cannot utilize the facts and laws 
of Nature to the best save as he increasingly under¬ 
stands himself. You as an individual may not appre¬ 
ciate this proposition because you seem so small a 
part of humanity, but it is only necessary to that 
appreciation to remember that your life is a part of 
the whole of human life, and that, if man more suc¬ 
cessfully understands and utilizes Nature the more 
he knows himself, this is also true in a proportionate 
degree of the individual. It is the belief of all the 
books in The Power-Book Library that success in life 
depends upon rightly knowing and rightly using our 
human nature. 

Moreover, again, human life, like all other life, is 
always action. Life is an expression of Fundamental 
Reality, and action is life’s effort always to realize 
the More of itself. All things needed for the unfold- 
ment to the limit of any type of life, life draws forth 
from itself as Reality. This drawing-forth is accom¬ 
plished by action, and by action alone. The law is, 
No development without action, and no action without 
some development in some direction. All human ac¬ 
tivity, therefore, is an expression of the nature of 
things in man. To this proposition there are no ex¬ 
ceptions. Man puts forth no activity which it is not 
the nature of things in him to put forth, whether that 
activity be what we call foolish and immoral or wise 
and righteous. In the whole of human life our ac¬ 
tivities simply manifest the possibilities of Reality. 
Putting aside for the moment such activities as seem 
to “go wrong,” we now see that every individual’s 


324 


Creative Personality 


activities go into the sum-total manifestations of the 
nature of things, and are so far forth important. The 
activities of a street sweeper are not less truly im¬ 
portant than are the activities of a statesman, although 
they may seem more lowly. Every variety of human 
endeavor, in any vocation or avocation, in any kind 
of toil, business, profession, in any kind of pleasure 
or catering, is an integral phase of the whole human 
exhibit of Reality. Human action has this dignity, 
that it is a phase of the nature of things in action, 
and is a contribution to the sum-total of human action. 
All individual action, in its mental origins, is a re¬ 
action and a knowing. All human action has some 
mental origin, and all human development involves the 
knowing of experience. No matter how lowly the ac¬ 
tivities of the individual life may be, they are con¬ 
tributions to the whole mass of universal action, knowl¬ 
edge and experience. This legitimatizes your life, no 
matter what that life may be — so far as we have now 
gone in this discussion. 

Moreover, again, when Reality manifests in human 
person, its mechanical workings are brought more or 
less under the control of individualized intelligence. 
The struggle now is toward a control of the nature of 
things in the interest of universal harmony and hap¬ 
piness. This struggle draws a line through the sum- 
total of human activities, and divides the legitimate 
from the illegitimate, or the useful from the destruc¬ 
tive. Not all human activities, not all human know¬ 
ings, are approvable, however truly they express the 
nature of things. The nature of things simply ex- 


The Instruments of Personality 325 

hibits the mechanically working law of cause and ef¬ 
fect. Whenever the mechanics of Nature start a 
cause, an effect is insured. Whenever human life 
starts a cause, an effect must follow. Our life is a 
complex of actions and reactions, each of which has 
the nature of a cause which must produce its effect. 
It is the function of our intelligence to utilize and con¬ 
trol this law of cause and effect. We accomplish these 
things through knowing and experience. Our whole 
mental life bombards Nature with causes, and is in 
turn bombarded by the resulting effects. The lesson, 
therefore, is that we start into action causes which 
shall bring back to us only those effects that make for 
individual welfare and happiness. This is the cri¬ 
terion of legitimate human knowing and action. The 
further lesson appears that, in the midst of life’s storm 
of causes and effects, we guide ourselves by legitimate 
knowing and experience through all the bombardment 
to which we are incessantly subjected, in the interest of 
welfare and happiness. The standard that determines 
whether or no our activities are legitimate is the tend¬ 
ency of the outcome for or against universal welfare 
and happiness. 

It thus appears that we are not to content ourselves 
with the conclusion that every human activity ex¬ 
presses the nature of things, and therefore immorality 
and foolishness are inevitable and legitimate. The 
dishonest gamester and the reckless thinker, the worth¬ 
less idler, the criminal, and the man who plays with 
human thought, each of these is natural, since he con¬ 
stitutes a system of causes and effects, but none of 


326 


Creative Personality 


these is making his way through that wild storm of 
causes and effects which we call human life, in the 
direction of universal harmony and happiness. 

With these discriminations, we now understand that 
normal human activity, of every description, in every 
field of life, has this dignity and this value, that it is 
a phase of universal unfoldment. The writer has 
found himself entertaining a degree of mild contempt 
for mere business, mere amusement, and a good deal 
of religious activity, and much of theoretical thought, 
such as occultism and so on. But the investigation of 
the studies of this book emphatically brought out the 
fact that, since every human activity is at base a mental 
action, a knowing, and a contribution to universal 
development, we must assign to the endeavor and life 
of every man and woman the dignity of being a mani¬ 
festation of Fundamental Reality, and pass adverse 
judgment against that only which is contrary to uni¬ 
versal welfare and happiness. 

In a word, we discover the practical value of these 
studies in the fact that they are studies of the various 
instruments or methods by which human person passes 
over from lower to higher forms of development. 
The more we understand these methods, the more are 
we able to utilize and control them. They are involved 
in absolutely everything that man is and does, and they 
make useful all his knowings and all his actions pro¬ 
vided they have the goal of welfare and happiness in 
view. You cannot live a minute, you cannot do a 
day’s work, you cannot think on any subject, without 
bringing into operation the instrumentations sug- 


The Instruments of Personality 327 

gested in this chapter. That is their practical value, 
and that value will be enhanced as you understand 
them and apply them to life. In order to indicate this 
value more specifically, we proceed to our regimes. 

Practical Regimes. 

First Regime of Instrumentation. The student 
should never for one moment forget that he is a mani¬ 
fest of, and in essence one with, Infinite Reality. He 
should dwell on this thought until it becomes an in¬ 
spiration and a dignifying power in his life. It is law 
that we cannot get away from Reality, but it is also 
law that unless we live up to the truth, Reality may 
pass out of us into other manifestations, because the 
set of things toward universal welfare and happiness 
is irresistible, and may conceivably draw out of any 
individual person who will not live up to the require¬ 
ments of the goal. 

Second Regime of Instrumentation. It is important 
that the student should get hold of the idea of instru¬ 
mentation. As the author writes these pages, he em¬ 
ploys the instruments of pen, ink, paper, nerves, mus¬ 
cles, hands, and his mental powers, and the process, 
which is an instrumentation, passes him, so to speak, 
into the composite result. This illustrates all cases. 
Your whole life is instrumentation by which Reality 
makes into you, and you make into your share of the 
Universe. And the one method of getting the idea 
consists in thinking it until it is a part of your mental 
life. 

Third Regime of Instrumentation. In thinking of 


328 


Creative Personality 


yourself as person engaged in such instrumentation, 
do not separate yourself into Reality as body and 
Reality as mind, and do not suppose that your instru¬ 
mentation is, now through body, now through mind, 
but remember that you are one person and that the 
instrumentation engages your total Reality making 
over into life. You will then obviate weak ideas about 
body as of secondary importance, and feel that the 
whole of you goes into whatever you do. 

Fourth Regime of Instrumentation. You are in¬ 
vited to remember that, whether or no you are aware 
of the fact, you are always passing Reality over into 
different forms. 

The question arises, Are these forms merely dif¬ 
ferent or are they of a higher order — do they con¬ 
tribute to the general welfare, not as a matter of 
morals or religion, but as concerns the reaction of all 
things upon yourself? It is suggested that, for sheer 
self-interest, you seek to pass yourself over into human 
life in higher forms which represent the most intelli¬ 
gent use of human faculty. Do not merely exist; live, 
and live highly. Thus each of us may help swing a 
Universe into best estate. 

Fifth Regime of Instrumentation . Remember that 
in the instrumentation of your life you are passing the 
ether, matter, physical life, force, person and thought 
through yourself, and thus giving them significance 
and value. This means that you transform manifests 
of Reality on its way “toward one far-off, divine 
event toward which the whole creation moves.” Your 
instrumentation is an absolutely important phase of 


The Instruments of Personality 329 

this vast development. Do not belittle yourself, your 
work. Your action expresses the nature of things as 
truly as did that of Newton, and is as truly useful if 
it has a similar tendency. Observe this: as you live 
on from day to day, you actually bring into existence 
a part of the higher Universe. The total of your life 
sections that Universe into a department which is 
solely your own, and which belongs to you. When 
the carpenter enters a completed dwelling, he may say, 
perhaps, “ I constructed that sideboard, that stairway,” 
and so on. In this sense, but also in a completer sense, 
you may say of the present Universe of personal life 
and thought, " I put forth activities and created re¬ 
sults, which work makes a department absolutely my 
own.” Remember, and make it fit and fine. 

It is also true that each person passes himself on 
into the material world in the sense that he impresses 
all matter with which he comes in contact, or in the 
immediate presence of which he daily lives, leaving 
thereon a record of his feelings, thoughts and actions. 
Thus, also, do you add to your department in Uni¬ 
versal Reality. Make it fit and fine. 

Sixth Regime of Instrumentation. Remember that 
you are a creator, and that you cannot possibly escape 
so long as you exist. Your thoughts and activities are 
actualities which you bring into existence. Moreover, 
you are an intelligent creator, having the power more 
or less to determine your creations, and always to 
direct the creative process. It should give a man a 
sense of dignity and value to remember that he, no 
less than the artist or the inventor, actually forces 


330 


Creative Personality 


Reality into manifest forms, and it should induce in¬ 
telligent creative living. You are invited to seek the 
inspiration of this thought: “I am not a negative 
quantity on this earth; I am a creator; I help build 
the better Universe.” 

Seventh Regime of Instrumentation. In all our 
physical activities we constitute the organ or member 
employed, and each activity is a knowing at that point. 
Your sense-organs, your organs of speech, and the 
other members of your body know how to act and 
what to do because you in them know how to act and 
what to do. But all this knowing is mental. You 
see, then, that you pass Reality over into life by your 
actions, by the complexities of your knowing, and that 
you are a creator because you are a knower, creating 
only in the act of knowing. If you carry this thought, 
“ I live, I create, by innumerable acts and many kinds 
of knowing; my whole life is a process of instrumenta¬ 
tion through knowing by means of which the Universe 
of person and thought is unfolded,” you will find your¬ 
self intelligently seeking to direct your activities in a 
rational way, and to make your mental knowings 
clearer, more definite and more useful to yourself and 
the world. 

Eighth Regime of Instrumentation. We have said 
that it is the action of psychic factor that develops 
body. This means that psychic factor manifesting 
person creates person’s body. But this really means 
that the person, you, create the body which external¬ 
izes you. The process by which you create your own 
body is continuous; you are always engaged in creating 


The Instruments of Personality 331 

your body. This is also true of your mind. You 
began this process as an infant, restlessly trying out 
one variety after another of knowing, and finally es¬ 
tablishing those different types of activities in know¬ 
ing into one system which constitutes your mind. 
This process also is continuous. You are always en¬ 
gaged in creating your mind. The creation of body 
and mind consists of the physical building activities 
and all the specific activities in knowing. 

The responsibility raised by these facts is evident. 
Do not seek to place that responsibility upon any one 
but yourself. The way you have lived, physically and 
mentally, has molded the powers and tendencies in¬ 
herited in your body and mind to your present per¬ 
sonal condition. If your inheritance has not been 
satisfactory, remember this, that unless our life could 
improve what it receives from birth, there could have 
been no progress from primeval man to present man. 
The conclusion is that to some degree you might have 
improved on what you have received at your birth. 
You are invited to cease accusing either the Deity or 
your ancestors for any present mental or physical con¬ 
dition, and from now on to think and live, for a sound 
body and a growing mind, affirming always, “ I am 
the master of my own conditions.” 

The responsibility here indicated is, after all, a 
privilege. Observe, that every human responsibility 
is a privilege, if we take it in hand with the highest 
mental attitude. Think, then, on this thought: “ The 
greatest privilege I have is to build a better body and 
a greater mind, and this work I now carry on by all 


332 


Creative Personality 


physical and mental activities which draw to myself 
all things needed to that end.” 

Ninth Regime of Instrumentation. We are always 
starting causes and getting effects. Not all of these 
effects result from our own causes, since we are ever 
in contact with other people. Our actions are also 
results of innumerable activities assailing us from all 
quarters, and are therefore reactions. These concep¬ 
tions make clear the truth that each human person 
lives in the midst of activities and causes, originated 
in part from within himself and in part from without. 
The suggestion comes forth that you bear this in mind, 
and that by the intelligent control of your life you 
make your way through the storm of life in your own 
interest. Remember these things: You have the 
power to reject any particular activity or cause, you 
have the power to start causes and to invite or receive 
activities as you decide, and that it is your high priv¬ 
ilege to steer your way through the storm, as the 
mariner steers his way at sea. The center of all this 
power is your thought. By thought you may oppose 
undesirable activities, by thought you may start new 
causes, by thought you may attract to yourself those 
influences which you believe will make for your wel¬ 
fare. Be captain in your life. 

Tenth Regime of Instrumentation. You are now 
invited to review the preceding pages on the follow¬ 
ing subjects, and to get a thorough understanding of 
the ideas and their import. 

Apprehension. What is its meaning and utility in 


The Instruments of Personality 333 

your mental life ? Get the idea, and practise the work 
of apprehending, deliberately and consciously. 

Comprehension. What does the word mean? 
How does it differ from apprehension? Practise the 
mental effort of comprehending, deliberately and con¬ 
sciously, analyzing the process as you go on with the 
work. Do you really comprehend the objects, forces 
and ideas which you comprehend? 

Intensive Understanding. Get a distinct notion of 
this. How does it differ from apprehension and com¬ 
prehension? Practise the work of understanding in¬ 
tensively whatever you appear to comprehend. 

Knowing, Knowledge and Truth. What is the act 
of knowing? What is knowledge? What is truth? 
Find some word of which you are totally ignorant, 
and consult the dictionary for its meaning. You will 
find in the definition certain words which you under¬ 
stand and others which you do not understand. Look 
up the meaning of one of the latter, and if this defini¬ 
tion contains words which you do not understand, pro¬ 
ceed as before, until at last you get the meaning of 
the original unknown word. On examining this proc¬ 
ess, you discover that you have all along employed 
mental activities, and that at each step you have placed 
the activity of that point in some satisfactory relation 
to the activities of preceding stages. In other words, 
the unknown becomes known only as it gets relation 
to what is already known. You see that this relation 
constitutes meaning, and that the relation is a know¬ 
ing. 


33 4 


Creative Personality 


Remember, that knowledge, taken in a general sense, 
is a system of mental relations that are satisfactory 
to the individual. The satisfactoriness of the rela¬ 
tions springs from an inner correspondence of ideas. 
In the specific sense, knowledge is a degree of cer¬ 
tainty that our idea of any existence corresponds to 
another idea, already established, of Reality. You 
are invited to study these propositions until you un¬ 
derstand them. By as much as you do understand 
them, you will see that your certainty of the corre¬ 
spondences is a matter of degrees, and that the cor¬ 
respondences shift more or less as your mental con¬ 
ditions change. The outcome will be a decreasing 
cocksureness of Opinion and an increasing openness 
of mind. But you are also invited to remember that, 
since the Universe and mind are both manifest of 
Reality, they are susceptible of perfect mutual adjust¬ 
ment, and that therefore it is possible for the human 
mind to arrive at a correct idea of the standard of 
Reality,, and correctly to compare all its ideas of 
specific existences with that idea,— in other words, 
to arrive at mental certainty which holds to the pos¬ 
session of absolute knowledge. In all your mental life 
seek to acquire mental certainty, seek the absolute 
knowledge. 

You are invited to get hold of the thought that what 
we call truth is the correspondence which appears to 
obtain between our conceptions concerning things, 
forces and activities, and our conception of Reality. 
You will discover that what you call truth is relative 
to yourself and the age in which you live. Our mental 


The Instruments of Personality 335 

correspondences vary under different conditions and 
at different times in each life and also from period 
to period in man’s history. It is an adage that the 
truth of one age is the error of the next. No one be¬ 
lieves at sixty precisely as he believed at twenty — un¬ 
less he is a fool. Nevertheless, there are certain great 
truths which hold over, at least in the “ core ” of 
them, in all our mental life. There is a central corre¬ 
spondence between mind and Reality which we be¬ 
lieve to be absolute. This correspondence makes it 
possible for us to obtain, sooner or later, the perfect 
correspondence of specific ideas with a correct con¬ 
ception of Reality. Such perfect correspondence con¬ 
stitutes absolute truth. 

Do not suppose, now, that these thoughts are purely 
metaphysical, and have no practical bearing on life. 
They are applicable to the farm, store, factory or 
bank, as surely as within the schoolroom. You are 
invited to become thoroughly familiar with the propo¬ 
sitions here set forth, and to take them into the con¬ 
duct of your practical work. Observe the results. 
The ideas of knowing, knowledge, mental correspond¬ 
ences, certainties and truth, will revise your mental 
life, reveal that supposed certainties have been uncer¬ 
tainties, that apprehensions have been confused, that 
you have not comprehended the commonest matters 
of your daily life, that your knowledge has consisted 
more or less of odds and ends and has lacked in sys¬ 
tem and efficiency, and that the so-called truths of 
your business or profession have been largely alloyed 
with misconceptions and error. If the outcome ap- 


336 


Creative Personality 


pears to be destructive and disturbing, remember that 
you have the power of reconstruction, and that the 
new man will prove vastly superior to the old. We 
invite you to arouse, review your mental life and busi¬ 
ness, and thoroughly to reorganize yourself and your 
work. 

Eleventh Regime of Instrumentations. You are in¬ 
vited to get a definite conception of the proposition 
that you are helping to transform the material phase, 
and to create the unseen phase, of the Universe. The 
Universe that you know is a Universe within your 
mind which you have built up by the reaction of your 
sense organs and your thought-processes, more or less 
correspondence with the outside Universe. The Uni¬ 
verse which is your own as thought, you have created. 
This is true as regards other people. The sum-total 
of such personal Universes constitutes a part of the 
unseen Universe. Thus each one of us sections that 
Universe into a department which belongs to its 
creator. Moreover, our activities modify the seen 
material Universe as we all know. Thus you section 
off the modified material universe and constitute a part 
of it your department. But it is undoubtedly true that 
your activities, physical and mental, modify that phase 
of the Universe which is non-material and is not per¬ 
sonal. The ether is neither matter nor person. There 
are probably other manifests of reality which are non¬ 
material and non-personal. But we are all surrounded 
by this unseen phase of the Universe, and since all 
phases must be inter-related, we affect such phases by 
our activities of body and mind. You have contrib- 


The Instruments of Personality 337 

uted, and are contributing, a proportion of the general 
modification of this unseen phase of being, and this 
also you thus section off into your own department. 
So, it appears, that you own a definite part of the Uni¬ 
verse composed as follows: material things as you 
modify them, non-material things as you modify them, 
and the world of your life-long thought. 

You are invited to cultivate a sense of pride and 
dignity because of the truth here suggested, and to 
make your life tell to the utmost in the interest of a 
perfect Universe. Remember, this task is not too high 
and mighty for any person. Whether you will or no, 
you are actually contributing as here suggested, actu¬ 
ally making your whole farm life and farm, business 
life and business, professional life and profession, 
criminal life and crime, or fool life and fool, con¬ 
tributory to the whole Universe of manifested Reality. 
At any stage in the future there will always be a de¬ 
partment of the Universe which you have contributed 
and which belongs solely to you. Therefore, make it 
right — for your own sake. 

This chapter brings out the idea of the passing over 
of the Fundamental Reality from material mechanism 
into self-controlled personal life, and a process of in¬ 
strumentation by means of which person manipulates 
matter, force and thought into innumerable forms of 
Reality and thus changes the material Universe and 
creates one that is unseen. The central instruments 
of this instrumentation are mental activities. The 
chapter thus constitutes a nexus between our previous 
studies, which have indulged in metaphysical no less 


338 


Creative Personality 


than psychological, and the discussions of Part II., in 
which we shall more closely confine our thought to the 
usual lines of mental science. The procedure indi¬ 
cated has not been without method. We believe that 
there is no conclusive reason for confining our investi¬ 
gations to mental facts without applying those meta¬ 
physical principles which the scientist must employ if 
he would give his whole mind freedom on the subject 
of psychology, and, indeed, to any department of even 
physical science. The original elements of the word 
signified A Word and Soul. Psychology is, broadly 
speaking, a discussion on the human soul, and we have 
sought to consider the great oilining of facts related 
thereto for the purpose of giving the student a larger 
conception of himself that might ensue from a mere 
study of mental facts without basis in and connection 
with that which constitutes our universe. We have 
also sought to inspire a higher and more intelligent 
life, and always to indicate that our study,— that the 
tremendous facts and truths suggested,— may be 
brought directly to bear upon every phase of practical 
human conduct. 

The study will be new to most of our readers. 
Always do men say of the new in thought that it is 
abstruse and difficult. But the Unfamiliar loses its 
difficulties when it becomes known. We trust that 
the reader will remember this, and persist in his effort 
until the conceptions of Part I. are understood and 
become inspirational. It is probable that the work of 
reading this Part will repay, many times will repay, 
the student more than he can estimate on a first read- 


The Instruments of Personality 339 

ing. You are invited to make this book a lifelong 
companion. 

In the succeeding Part you will find analyses of the 
mind and directions for its developments, training and 
use which may strike you as being more practical than 
the present one, but we believe that the value of all 
the following discussions will largely depend upon 
your familiarity with those which we now close. Re¬ 
member, that your mind is an instrument by means 
of which you, a person, assist in transforming the 
world and in giving reality, the nature of things, op¬ 
portunity for expressing itself in the Greater Universe. 


LAW: Action Is Life's Effort Always to Realize the 
More of Itself. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

GOAL OF THE SELF. 

H UMAN life has evidently some ideal goal. 

Definitions of this goal will differ according 
to habits of thought, but a fundamental con¬ 
ception of it may be reached through a discussion of 
the question: What is the necessary end or goal of 
any kind of existence? The Universe, and all things 
therein contained, appear to be going on toward some 
definite consummation — to exhibit activities in the 
direction of appropriate ends. If we deny this ap¬ 
pearance, the drama of being is chaos. If we accept 
the appearance, the question suggested may become a 
key with which the problem of our relation to the Uni¬ 
verse can in part be solved. 

Ends in General. 

The word “ end,” as here employed, signifies not 
merely a finality, but a completion, more or less per¬ 
fect, of tendencies which exhibit a law. We use the 
word goal as meaning an end that is inherently em¬ 
bodied in the nature of an object or a life. Thus, a 
crystal expresses the end or goal inherent in the na¬ 
ture of its chemical elements, and an orange indicates 
the goal or end of the tree which bears that fruit. 

340 


Goal of the Self 


341 


This conception is basic. It is at least one of the 
criteria by which we distinguish between adaptation 
and so-called design. Adaptation may exhibit an ap¬ 
parent end, yet fail to express tendencies inherent in 
its means. Such adaptation would be seen if the 
broken handle of a bicycle were temporarily repaired 
by means of a convenient strap. The means has here 
its adaptation, but the adaptation is not the end. An 
end may also appear when the adaptation seems espe¬ 
cially designed, as in the case of any part of a ma¬ 
chine, or of the machine itself considered with refer¬ 
ence to its work. The end of the part is cooperation 
with other parts; the end of the machine is some kind 
of work to be accomplished. The latter end, though 
designed, is an adaptation that originates externally 
to the objects. The tendencies are induced, not in¬ 
herent. Conceivably, objects might be put to other 
than the designed uses. In Nature many adaptations 
appear which are not ends embodied in the nature of 
the things adapted. In the true sense, such ends are 
fortuitous. However they occur, they might occur in 
any other way. An end in the world of Nature may 
even appear to be designed, yet turn out to be merely 
a case of fortuitous adaptation. We shall avoid con¬ 
fusion if we remember that a true end or goal ex¬ 
presses the inherent tendencies of the objects to which 
they relate. 

The idea of design combines adaptation with previ¬ 
ous thought and will. This is our common conception 
of a goal. If we do not limit the idea by purely per¬ 
sonal elements,— if we think of ends or goals as ex- 


342 


Creative Personality 


pressing the nature of objects, life, existence,— the 
conception will be correct. That is to say: we infer 
something which we commonly interpret as thought 
and will as director of the adaptation, but refer the 
elements of so-called thought and will to inherent 
tendencies which bring expression of the object’s pos¬ 
sibilities into greatest completeness. 

We think of a true end or goal, then, as that state 
of an object or life which the Fundamental Reality 
provides in its nature for the ultimate result of its 
development. Such result is inherent in the nature 
of the thing, and proved by the Fundamental Reality 
which gives it existence. 

The answer to our question: What is the neces¬ 
sary end or goal of any object or any life? is now ap¬ 
parent. The highest conceivable goal of an existence 
is the fullest expression of its inherent possibilities — 
complete development. 

And the only true method by which the true end or 
goal of an existence may be realized is that of com¬ 
plete self-expression according to its nature. Objects, 
life, being, Fundamental Reality, achieve their neces¬ 
sary ends through unfoldment of their essential na¬ 
ture. 

The nature of a thing is indicated by those of its 
activities through which it manifests itself. The ac¬ 
tivities of any existence are of two varieties: those 
which manifest it, and those which constitute it. 
Constitutive activities embody the principle of their 
cooperation in an existence-system. The principle is 
not an entity residing in the midst of the activities; 


Goal of the Self 


343 


it is, rather, a complex fact, a fact which “ hyphen¬ 
ates ” itself as kind-relation-association. This deter¬ 
mines the activities to be what they are, both constitu¬ 
tive and manifesting. The nature of a thing is thus 
the activities that constitute being. 

The manifest activities of an existence indicate its 
nature. We infer the constitutive activities through 
observing the manifesting. Every action demands for 
thought an actor. Our reasoning has led us to as¬ 
sume one Fundamental Reality as the cause and sup¬ 
port of all things, which Reality requires no agent 
other than itself because it is infinite. The manifest 
activities of this Reality are the constitutive activities 
of the nature of things. The manifest activities of 
things indicate to our thought their nature. Their 
goal is complete expression of their constitutive na¬ 
ture. 

Now: we have said that law is a way things have 
of being and doing. There are, therefore, laws of 
constitution and laws of manifestation. The laws 
governing the constitution of Reality’s activities into 
an existence are merely inferences which we derive 
from observation of manifest activities and from the 
logical working of mind. Thus, we may say that the 
laws of the constitutive activities of an existence are 
the ways that existence has of doing in its being. 

The laws of any object of existence are the ways 
we think it has of being and doing. We observe its 
manifest activities and infer its constitutive activities, 
and then we form an opinion in the matter. This 
opinion — our thought — is what we call law. Each 


344 


Creative Personality 


object that we know seems always to manifest itself, 
or to act, in the same way under the same conditions; 
we conclude that here is a law. If things manifest 
themselves according to laws, our thought holds that 
they are constituted according to laws. The latter 
laws are, again, our thoughts about the nature of 
things. Such only are the laws of Nature, as we know 
Nature. Nature undoubtedly exists and acts accord¬ 
ing to actual, absolute law, and our law-thoughts may 
be right or they may be wrong, but the only laws we 
know are our thoughts as to the ways things have 
of being and doing. Similarly with reference to the 
nature of things. 

When the laws (our thoughts, as above suggested) 
and the Nature (our thoughts, again) seem to agree 
or harmonize, we are entitled to say that our conclu¬ 
sions concerning law and nature are correct. Of 
course, this correctness is only tentative, but if new 
facts come into view, our modified conclusion must 
again rest on the same agreement. 

We determine the necessary end or goal of an ob¬ 
ject or a life by observing the ways it has of doing or 
manifesting, and by inferring the ways it has of being, 
and by perceiving the tendencies of its activities when 
undisturbed by interfering influences. Thus, Carbon 
under certain conditions crystallizes into definite form 
and has great brilliancy, and we say the diamond is 
one end or goal of this element, Carbon. Physical life 
has evolved various forms of animal organism, and we 
say, Here are some of the ends of living matter. The 


Goal of the Self 


345 


goal of physical animal evolution is the body of man. 
The body expresses the nature of things working in 
a given direction. Physical evolution can do no more 
—-except that the body may become more and more 
perfect expression of the possibilities which it indi¬ 
cates. 

The same conclusion will be reached when we con¬ 
sider a system of activities of any kind. A true sys¬ 
tem embodies some principle — that which must deter¬ 
mine the system to be the kind of system it is. It is 
this principle that determines the system as a system 
and at the same time determines its kind. A body of 
activities having no principle is no system, and can, 
therefore, have no necessary end or goal. Such a 
body exhibits association without the element of kind- 
relation. Its tendencies, if it has any, are anything, 
and are induced by external conditions. When we 
begin to perceive the tendencies of a system, we begin 
to apprehend its nature and to make out its true goal. 
The fundamental conception we gain concerning the 
end of a system is the full expression of the possibili¬ 
ties of the activities according to that principle which 
determines them to be a system. The activities are 
adapted to the end only when the principle makes the 
end natural and necessary. It is the principle that 
saves the system from accidentally achieving an end. 
A system of activities in Nature, then, has its end or 
goal provided in the inherent determining adaptation 
of the Fundamental Reality. If it is the nature of 
Reality to express, more and more, its inherent pro- 


346 


Creative Personality 


visions, such must be the tendency, such must be the 
law, of any true system of activities in the world of 
Nature. The Universe is a system of systems, and 
its goal can be no other than the increasing realization 
of its possibilities. Similarly with every other system 
included in the Universe. 

Regarding the Universe as a System of Activities, 
we should look for its end or goal in the same way. 
As a System it has some determining principle of all 
its included systems. This System is a manifest of 
Reality, and its goal must be the expression of the 
provisions of its nature. This goal would seem to 
realize in the present material organization of worlds 
and their tendencies, together with the evolution of the 
two kingdoms of life, the plant and the animal, includ¬ 
ing man. Man, as a system, of physical and psychic 
activities, would seem to centre and climax that goal. 

This brings us to the question of failures. It is a 
fundamental that the Universe is conservative as a 
System, and constructive in the sense of conserving its 
own integrity. Reality is not self-destructive, al¬ 
though its expressions come and go in the process 
of its unfoldment in worlds. Below man the “ going ” 
here is as essential to the Universe as is the “ coming ” 
of such expressions. In man, Reality seems to ex¬ 
press in what are called “ evils,” but this fact obtains 
in the interest of man’s freedom of self-determination. 
Reality involves freedom, and man manifests a phase 
of that infinite freedom of being. The free Infinite 
Reality can not possess the freedom of self-destruc¬ 
tion, since its existence is not derived. But the free 


Goal of the Self 


34 7 


finite manifest of Reality, man, may possess the power 
to miss the goal of its being by violating the laws of 
its nature. Man may fail to realize the goal of his 
nature because he is free to run counter to the laws 
of his being. When he does this, he expresses Reality 
as manifest in him as a free system of activities. This 
failure may involve many things, but it must involve 
the missing of the fullest personality. 

Whenever “ evils ” appear they express the possi¬ 
bilities of free Reality in its manifested forms, but if, 
in the long run, they stop the full harmonious develop¬ 
ment of all manifestations, they do not indicate the 
final end of Reality and do not indicate the final end 
of its expressions; they are hindrances to those ends, 
and ultimately must disappear from the Universe. 

It is evident, then, that the goal of any existence is 
the unfoldment of completest possibilities inherent in 
the system and making for final universal harmony. 
No system of activities can do more. No higher end 
or goal can be conceived for any system. Thus we 
indicate the goal of the self. 

Goal of the Self Stated. 

The goal of the self is the complete realisation of 
those possibilities which the Fundamental Reality pro¬ 
vides within it in the interest of final harmony. This 
means the perfect realization of all the self-preserva¬ 
tive elements of its nature, according to the laws of 
its true being. The goal of the self, then, is not 
chaotic and destructive expression of freedom; it is 
the full realization of all the conserving elements of 

\ 


348 


Creative Personality 


man’s nature as a human being, according to the laws 
of his nature as expressing the Infinite Reality mani¬ 
fest in such human nature. 

The laws of the self, as thus indicated, are: Laws 
of the constitutive activities of Reality which give him 
being; laws of his own manifesting activities as pro¬ 
vided by Reality within him. The method by which 
we make out these laws is this: We note our own in¬ 
herent convictions and stand by or follow those which 
hold on through all changing conditions; we note the 
lessons of our own experience, and follow those that 
make for the preservation and development of the 
self; we note the experiences and convictions of the 
race, and follow those that make for the general good. 
There is no other authority on the laws of the self. 
We are entitled to hold that these criteria give us the 
true laws of the preservative, constitutive and mani¬ 
festing activities of the human self. 

Analyzing the' goal of the self,— complete realiza¬ 
tion of the self-preservative nature, according to the 
true laws of its being,— we discover the following ele¬ 
ments : 

1. Physical Health and Body-Capacity for Crea¬ 
tive Work — including the actual (not the theoretical ) 
Destruction of Death; 

2. Fullness and Richness of Consciousness — in¬ 
cluding the Subconscious phase of the Self; 

3. Alert, Facile, and Powerful Activities in Know¬ 
ing — including Constructive and Creative Thought; 

4. Moral Completeness — including Conscious One¬ 
ness with the Infinite; 


Goal of the Self 349 

5. Personal Completeness for all Stages of Exist¬ 
ence. 

The first of these factors is not properly or directly 
before us, but values relating to it ought to have ap¬ 
peared as we have proceeded on our way with the 
study of this book, since unfoldment of the true self 
will necessarily affect the body in a beneficial manner. 
The fourth factor belongs to another science, ethics, 
and must be dismissed with the suggestion that in this 
respect also the work of psychological thought and 
practice will necessarily make, more or less, for the 
best moral condition of the self. The fifth factor will 
be deferred for a later discussion. 

The second and third factors now concern us. In 
the sense of all factors, the goal of the self is its best 
personal estate. This goal is reached through inter¬ 
action with the Arena of the individual life. 

Arena of the Unfolding Self. 

The Arena in which a human self develops is its 
environment. Environment may not be indicated by 
mere surroundings. The idea of surrounding is con¬ 
tiguity — however extensive. The idea of environ¬ 
ment is surrounding that influence. A “ vast contiguity 
of space,” even if filled with globes of life, might fail 
to influence an object out of other than spatial rela¬ 
tions with it. When an object or a life is in relation 
with surroundings provided by that Reality which 
gives all things existence, the surroundings become en¬ 
vironment. The self has a nature in common with 


350 


Creative Personality 


that of worlds, and worlds, therefore, constitute its 
true environment. The whole Universe influences in 
various ways every existence within it, and each ex¬ 
istence is a centre of universal activities. The self, 
being thus a centre acted upon, reacts in turn upon 
environment, and, by such reaction, makes the Uni¬ 
verse more or less its own. How greatly the universal 
activities influence the self depends in part at least 
on the degree and quality of this reaction to them. 
The true environment of the self, then, is just so 
much of the Universe as it knows, appropriates, builds 
into its own life. 

The last statement is immensely important. The 
self is, indeed, surrounded by boundless worlds which 
incessantly rain in upon it their marvelous activities. 
But these activities can only influence the self as it 
reacts to them in knowing them, selecting from them 
according to its will, and assimilating their meanings 
into its own constitution and so growing stronger and 
stronger in its own powers. Thus it makes a part of 
the Universe its true environment. Three principles 
are thus established: (a) The self is a centre of uni¬ 
versal activities; (b) the self reacts to a part of these 
activities; (c) the self defines its Arena by such re¬ 
action. In this Arena the self attains its goal — that 
of best personal estate. The Arena may be analyzed 
as follows: 

First, the self unfolds with and within its own phys¬ 
ical body. 

Secondly, the self unfolds by reacting to the action 
upon it of the world of matter and force. 


Goal of the Self 


351 


Thirdly, the self unfolds by reacting to the action 
upon it of the world of human and other persons. 

Fourthly, the self unfolds by reaction of its own 
activities with each other — by its own subconscious 
and mental operations. These phases of Arena we 
now take up in the order named. 

1. Arena of the Physical Body. The self builds 
its own body. We lead up to this statement by ob¬ 
serving: Reality expresses through matter in psychic 
factor; individual psychic factor appears in the pro- 
creative germ-cells of living body; when these cells 
are united, the two psychic factors merge into one, 
just as the cells merge into one; the one cell now 
grows by appropriating nutriment from the mother; 
the appropriation is made by psychic factor reacting 
to its environment, the mother; thus the body is built 
during pre-natal conditions. At birth the self escapes 
into the larger world, provided in the body with the 
necessary organs of sense which relate it to that world. 
Thereafter, selection, appropriation and assimilation 
of the elements required for physical growth are con¬ 
tinued in a larger and more complicated manner. The 
body is a phase of Arena because it is external to the 
self in the sense of being a manifest of the self, and 
because the latter builds it for habitation and instru¬ 
ment. 

We see that incipient psychic factor constructs the 
physical organism prior to birth by reaction to the 
mother. But this reaction also develops psychic factor 
— that is, unfolds its elements according to the limit¬ 
ations of its pre-natal environment. At birth, the self 


352 


Creative Personality 


emerges into the world with a body fitted thereto, and 
the psychic factor is now also a true self, fitted to 
carry on body-building and to employ that body as an 
instrument in reducing worlds to true Arena. 

The relations of the self and its physical organism 
are thus of the most intimate kind. The self occupies 
the whole structure, and acts in every action and op¬ 
eration of that structure. The self is directly involved 
in each activity and function of this Arena. Neces¬ 
sarily, then, the body incessantly acts upon the self. 
Here matter and spirit are in the closest possible inter¬ 
action. If the body is a manifest of the self, its struc¬ 
ture and activities, both internal and external, must 
affect the self on the principle, say, that our thoughts, 
which are our mental manifests, must affect the self. 

Were free psychic factor in possession, before birth, 
of the full measure of its freedom provided in it as an 
expression of Infinite Reality,— were it not already in 
the pro-creative cells, modified by ancestral conditions, 
— and were it not during gestation constantly modified 
by maternal states of body and mind,— it would build 
a physical structure perfect for its kind and a true self 
perfect as a human. All these modifications occur 
prior to birth, so that the self emerges into the world 
made imperfect by that very freedom which is abso¬ 
lutely indispensable to psychic unfoldment of the high¬ 
est order. Freedom is both devil and god in human 
life. 

We have, then, psychic determinations of physical 
character, and we have physical determinations of 
psychic character. The self may affect the body in 


353 


Goal of the Self 

deleterious ways, and the body may affect the self in 
similar ways. So far as evil results are concerned, 
the correction of this condition will depend —first, 
upon the gradual elimination of ancestral tendencies 
through ages of educational effort; secondly, upon 
thought-concentration of the self upon physical and 
psychic ideals. The one task is for the race, the other 
calls for individual effort of the self. 

The basic truth here is this: the self, as the superior 
manifest of Infinite Reality, should be lord and high 
priest of the body it builds, and may become such by 
striving for thought-harmony with that Reality and 
thought-concentration on all psychic and physical 
ideals. 

Thought is the one supreme power by which the 
self is to attain its proper goal. 

So far as psychic and physical character are con¬ 
cerned (aside from evils), the evidences are seen in 
every human body and in every human self. Bodies 
differ according to differing psychic influences operat¬ 
ing within, and each self differs from others according 
to the influence of its body. These statements are true 
also of the pro-creative cells and their psychic factors. 
Many signs of character-determination appear in per¬ 
sons everywhere. They appear in psychic traits, tem¬ 
peraments, peculiarities, abilities and weaknesses. 
They appear in physical conditions, stature, carriage, 
features, habits, lines on the hands, sense-powers, 
physical aptitudes and weaknesses, etc., etc. 

Here, also, the supreme force which we are to em¬ 
ploy for the development of both physical and psychic 


354 


Creative Personality 


character, is Thought — habituated concentration of 
thought upon the ideals of that Infinite Reality of 
which we are direct expressions, and of which we 
would be perfect expressions had psychic human free¬ 
dom always run to such ideals. By these methods 
may we make the physical organism a royal field for 
the attainment of the true goal of the self. 

II. Arena of the World of Matter and Force. 
This world we conceive to be a phenomenal expres¬ 
sion of Reality, and it is actual in that sense. It acts 
upon the self in various ways, thus inducing mental 
reactions called sensation, perception, feeling and 
thought of all orders. 

True to the habits of heredity, the self constructs 
the instruments by which it may know the world and 
through which the world may act upon it. These in¬ 
struments are the sense-organs and the brain — and 
perhaps other obscure means by which the self occa¬ 
sionally reacts to this phase of Arena independently of 
the sense-organs. 

The organs of vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, 
are the familiar mediators between the self and ex¬ 
ternal existence. They are products of the evolution 
of psychic factor in interaction with environment. 
Each of them consists of appropriate structures and 
nerve matter,—also being products of psychic build¬ 
ing,— which nerve-matter connects in various ways 
with the brain, this in turn being mainly a complex 
of nerve-matter and wholly a creation of the same 
factor. The self occupies the sense-organs in the 
meaning (at least) that it physically functions therein, 


355 


Goal of the Self 

but it occupies the brain in the sense that it physically 
and psychically functions in that centre. This does 
not mean that the self functions psychically in the 
brain only, since it must so function in every part of 
the body for purely physical ends (at least), and may 
so function obscurely or secondarily for psychic ends. 
The statement means that the brain seems to be the 
chief organ of psychic action in relation to the self and 
the external world. 

Roughly speaking, the organs of sense relate the self 
to the worlds about it by reacting to external activi¬ 
ties. By reacting is meant acting in consequence of 
being acted upon. Such reaction is that of the # nerves 
and of the self using the organs. The external ac¬ 
tivities may be classed as those of atmospheric waves, 
those of etheric undulations, and those of matter in 
various conditions. The sole functions of a nerve is 
irritability.— continuing throughout its entire tract. 
External activities of waves, undulations and induce¬ 
ment of contact excite the nerve-matter of the sense- 
organs, and the excitation transmits through the 
nerve-tracts to their corresponding brain-areas. At 
this point a second reaction occurs. The primary 
nerve-reaction to external activities differs in identity 
and character from the external activities that induce 
them. The waves of air, the undulations of ether, 
the matter in contact, do not identically pass or con¬ 
tinue into the nerve-tracts and brain. These activi¬ 
ties. remain totally in the outside world. Figuratively, 
we speak of a wave or undulation or vibration as oc¬ 
curring along a nerve-tract; the fact is that the nerve 


356 


Creative Personality 


is excited, brought into an especially active state, and 
that this state of peculiar action is continuous along 
the tract. The excitation constitutes the primary re¬ 
action — reaction of organ to externality. 

The second reaction in the case is that of the self 
to the nerve-activities. Both reactions have long his¬ 
tories in evolution, but only the second named need be 
dwelt upon. Psychic factor, expressing the nature 
provided within it by Infinite Reality, has all along 
struggled to unfold itself and thus to bring itself into 
relations with externality. This struggle has evolved 
the sense-organs, the nerve-tracts, and the brain. 
Such results have given the psychic self merely the in¬ 
struments by which the appropriate relations might be 
obtained. The product of the use of these instru¬ 
ments has been an outcome of intelligence. The re¬ 
action of the self to disturbances in the nerve-tracts 
centering in the brain can be nothing to intelligence 
save Meaning. Every reaction of the inner self to 
the activities of the external world has and it is — 
meaning. The word meaning thus covers all results 
of the correct use of the sense-organs. Vision, hearing, 
smell, taste, touch — and all that they embrace — are 
meanings wrought by the self in the very processes of 
sense-reactions to the external worlds. 

The reaction here indicated is two-fold. There is, 
first, that simple, primary reaction which we call Sen¬ 
sation. Pure sensation is just self-awareness of a 
given physical state. The state has this meaning, and 
no other. When the state is referred to an external 
existence, the meaning is that the state is due to such 


Goal of the Self 


35 7 


existence. In the sense of being aware of the state, 
the self perceives the sensation. In the sense of being 
aware of the inducement, the self perceives the exter¬ 
nal fact. The reaction has now the meaning, “ exter¬ 
nal reality.” The reaction, taken as two-fold, is sense- 
perception. Sensation and sense-perception are mean¬ 
ings which the self establishes for certain actions upon 
it of the world of matter and force. 

A meaning is a relation which the self establishes 
for any one of its own activities among all the others. 
The meaning of pure sensations is the relations of 
simplest states to other simplest states and to other 
activities of the self. The meaning, “ simplest state,” 
arises on comparison of a given state with other self¬ 
activities— and is the relation thus established. The 
meaning, “ kind of sensation,” “ this or that sensa¬ 
tion,” arises also on comparison with other self-ac¬ 
tivities and with other “ simplest states.” The proc¬ 
esses, thus analyzed for our thought, are in each case 
simultaneous, constituting such sensation, or being 
that sensation-meaning,— that is, the various kinds of 
sensation. The meaning of sense-perception, as it is 
called, is the relation of a “ simplest state ” referred 
to its external inducement among other similarly re¬ 
ferred states. In the former case, the “ simplest 
states ” are the main elements; in the latter case, the 
references to external inducements are the main ele¬ 
ments. When the external inducement gets a mean¬ 
ing,— is related in the self to other self-activities and 
to other external inducements,— the main element ap¬ 
pears in perception of an external existence as such. 


358 


Creative Personality 


It now seems that when we say we perceive objects, 
movements, sounds, odors, etc., the truth is that we 
give meanings, altogether within ourselves, to our 
nerve-reactions with external activities affecting the 
sense-organs. The actual perceptions are within the 
self, right or wrong; the objects that seem to be per¬ 
ceived are external, and while they may or may not be 
truly perceived, are never in any sense identical with 
the perceptions themselves. Our perceptions are 
meanings given to objects, not objects given to mean¬ 
ings. 

We thus suggest an analysis of the world of matter 
and force so far as having meaning derived through 
the sense-organs. Our phrasing may be that of per¬ 
ception of external existences or that of giving mean¬ 
ings to such existences. The fact is one — reaction 
to nerve-states induced by external agencies. If we 
say that all such reactions are meanings, our analysis 
will be as follows: 

Matter-meanings and force-meanings; Object-mean¬ 
ings and Quality-meanings; Movement-meanings and 
Activity-meanings; Plant-meanings; Animal-mean¬ 
ings; Mineral-meanings; Life-meanings and Chemical- 
element-meanings; Person-meanings and Mind-mean¬ 
ings. And so on with greater refinement. Thus does 
the whole Universe offer itself, through its innumer¬ 
able activities affecting the self, to the latter’s power 
of reacting to it in meaning. Thus immensely great 
is the Arena of the self by as much as it makes that 
Universe its own. 

A further though more or less obscure mode of re- 


Goal of the Self 


359 


action with the external worlds may be indicated by 
reference to the subconscious or pre-mental phases of 
the self. Perfected sense-organs are the outcomes of 
vast evolutionary experiences through which psychic 
factor has unfolded into primitive and advanced man. 
The earliest man has sense-organs somewhat superior 
to animal sense-organs, but the present organs were 
far in man’s future. The original organs were prod¬ 
ucts of the struggle of the human self to come into 
relations with its worlds. Its reactions thereto may 
not have been confined to use of the sense-instruments, 
but may have vaguely proceeded in a semi-independ¬ 
ence of the same. Times of need and danger would 
call forth reactions to matters not apprehensible 
through the sense, making imperative an expression 
of power inherent in the nature given it by Infinite 
Reality — apprehension directly, without physical 
means. Times, also, would seem inevitable in that 
primitive state, when psychic appreciation, which em¬ 
braces more than the describable, would constitute a 
real if intangible reaction with the Infinite Reality 
itself. The self to-day sometimes sees without eyes, 
hears without ears, feels without contact, intuits with¬ 
out reasoning, knows without sense-organs, influences 
without ordinary methods. Instances of such reac¬ 
tions are observed in clairvoyance, clair-audience, psy- 
chometry, telepathy, personal magnetism, and the like 
phenomena. The self seems to know in hypnotic 
states matters of which it must be ignorant if depend¬ 
ent on the senses. If “ materializations ” witnessed at 
“ seances ” are products of the psychic activities of 


360 


Creative Personality 


the sitters and the medium — reorganizations of mat¬ 
ter drawn from the bodies of those present,— the 
power to achieve this result has no relations to the 
organs of sense. If the “ materializations ” are non¬ 
material, they are not perceived through the senses. 
The pre-mental self seems to exhibit abilities of know¬ 
ing not referable to sense-action. We may conceive, 
then, of certain sublimed conditions of the body and 
self in which the organs habitual to perception may 
be passed over, so to speak, and the self may know ex¬ 
ternal existences independently and perhaps know that 
which to the senses is necessarily hidden. 

In these general ways the self reacts to the world 
of matter and force. As the reactions are meanings, 
and as the meanings are established,— always the same 
(practically) under the same conditions,— the self 
comes in time to represent, both in its thought and in 
its speech, these meanings by the factors of language. 
Language is a system of signs for a system of mean¬ 
ings which a race has created and fitted to its own use. 
Here, also, is a phase of Arena, which the self has 
made its own, because it has wrought out the lan¬ 
guage through its meaning-reactions with the world 
of matter and force. 

These considerations suggest the true environment 
or Arena of the self as related to the physical Uni¬ 
verse. The Arena here consists of the meanings de¬ 
rived from the action upon the self of external mate¬ 
rial existences. The Arena also consists of established 
abilities to derive these meanings. The individual 
meanings come and go capriciously — as though mere 


361 


Goal of the Self 

accidents. After a time they remain, in the sense that 
they can be repeated, and the reactions involving’ them 
become habitual. Then follows the power to use these 
meanings in all sorts of ways in the interest of the 
inner life. This rough analysis includes the follow¬ 
ing factors: (a) External existences act upon the 
self through the sense-organs (independently in ex¬ 
ceptional cases), (b) The self reacts in various ways, 
and the reactions are perceptions — meanings. Each 
individual reaction comes to be repeated under given 
conditions, and thus is established as an ability to re¬ 
peat. (c) The self comes to recognize each repetition 
as a repeated former reaction, perception, meaning, 
(d) The self now employs these established abilities 
in combinations innumerable. The representatives of 
the reaction-meanings or perceptions remain external: 
the perceptions are wholly within the self, since they 
are its own reactions. The external existences consti¬ 
tute a language, and the inner meanings given its signs 
by the self are also a language of thought, which is 
finally given the form of speech and writing. Thus 
the inner meanings come to he a thought-world in cor¬ 
respondence with the external world. The self has 
created that world, and that world constitutes its 
Arena, so far forth. The rest of the Universe is 
terra incognita — Beyond. 

In this Arena of meaning given to the world of mat¬ 
ter and force,— its apprehended objects, forces, move¬ 
ments, qualities, relations, etc.,— the self has all along 
been engaged in working out a part of its Goal: ful¬ 
ness and richness of consciousness and mental alert- 


362 


Creative Personality 


ness, facility and power. We see the first element of 
that Goal in the vast number of actualities that any 
average person is able to think. We see, also, that 
every one must have exhibited a degree of alertness 
and acquired more or less facility and power in gain¬ 
ing such an immense number and variety of meanings. 
And all this signifies increased ability to enlarge the 
Arena of sense-perception, and perhaps subconscious 
knowings. 

At this point it should be added that the body, as a 
part of external material existence, enters into the 
Arena made possible by the latter. The self owns its 
body, has the intelligence necessary for its construc¬ 
tion, and also uses it. These conclusions follow from 
our consideration of the first phase of Arena of the 
self. But the self employs its sense-organs in rela¬ 
tion to the body. The body acts upon the self in the 
way of touch — coming into “contact” with the self 
in various internal physical sensations, which sensa¬ 
tions are referred by the self to the body as its own. 
The self also apprehends the body through the other 
organs — seeing it, hearing it, smelling and tasting it. 
In these ways, the self establishes meanings — per¬ 
ceives body and parts, brings it into Arena. In any 
ordinary life this field is very great, and when scien¬ 
tific investigation takes the body in hand, Arena now 
becomes immeasurably vaster and more wonderful. 
Here, again, all the elements of the Goal of the self in 
interaction with material realities are more or less 
realized. 

III. Arena of the World of Person. The mean- 


363 


Goal of the Self 

ing of the word, Person, has been discussed in a pre¬ 
ceding chapter. At present we may employ it in its 
ordinary sense. The Arena of Person embraces hu¬ 
man beings and other intelligences. We apprehend 
the first through the organs of sense, in part, and by 
action of the pre-mental self. Other than human in¬ 
telligences can act upon our knowing powers either by 
“ assuming ” some material form or by directly af¬ 
fecting the self in some pre-mental way. Action upon 
the self by human persons in ways other than through 
the sense-organs has already been discussed in the 
preceding phase of Arena. 

The bodies of people affect our sense-organs in the 
same manner as do other material objects. Nerve- 
tracts centering in the brain are variously disturbed 
and excitations are transmitted to that centre where 
they are given meanings by the self. In these re¬ 
spects the bodies observed are no different from any 
material object. As concerns the great mass of peo¬ 
ple, the meanings they induce in us are limited to such 
common results. But our meanings increase as we 
become familiar with the particulars of body-charac¬ 
ter through more or less intimate association, for we 
then observe details otherwise unobserved, and we 
come to discover physical traits, which are expres¬ 
sions in bodies of psychic character. These traits or 
evidences of personal character add to our Arena — 
the world of humans made our own. The general 
process brings forth the meanings also of friends, 
strangers, enemies, and all the peculiar meanings per¬ 
taining to the various relations of life. From such re- 


364 


Creative Personality 


lations spring innumerable meanings which are the 
products of experience with personal contact: sensa¬ 
tions, mental feelings and emotions, ideas involved in 
the many departments of community-life, political, 
ethical, religious and racial ideas; the whole mass of 
meanings involved in human conduct. We do not 
gather such results directly from sense-perception, 
of course; they are outcomes of the working over by 
the self of the meanings induced by sense-percep¬ 
tion. 

The human world embraces also all the physical re¬ 
sults of thought, and skill applied to the world of mat¬ 
ter and force. If we have eighty odd chemical ele¬ 
ments and several hundred thousands of compounds, 
the objects which man has fashioned must be vast in¬ 
deed in number. Through the sense-organs we come 
to know in the way of more or less definite meaning 
the factors of house-life, those of industry, those of 
transportation means, those of religion, those of art. 
The direct meanings of sense-perception are thus in¬ 
numerable in this Arena. But the indirect meanings 
may almost inconceivably enlarge the field. Every 
object that man has moulded to his uses centres a 
great complex of ideas — suggested meanings. Every 
complex of such suggested meanings in turn suggests 
additional meanings, both in itself and in its relations. 
If we add the factor of scientific investigation to the 
vast Arena of almost any person within the bounds of 
civilization, our general human Arena has become in¬ 
conceivable. No one mind can embrace or compre¬ 
hend it. We may attempt the task by imagining a 


Goal of the Self 


365 


person with all the senses closed — or a person blind, 
deaf and dumb and uneducated. The Arena is now 
inconsiderable. In the case of any person of ordinary 
education and experience, the distance between him¬ 
self and the former unfortunate is beyond our ability 
to indicate, because no one of us correctly appraises 
his sense-organ possessions and their correlated re¬ 
sults. Reference to specially gifted and educated 
minds need not be made, for the reason that the reader 
is himself more or less master of an inner world that 
transcends his power of measurement. 

The fact that the world thus acquired has, in the 
process of its development, unfolded the self toward 
its goal, seems now evident. The meanings thus indi¬ 
cated, and the work of getting them, have necessarily 
given fulness and richness of consciousness and se¬ 
cured in greater or less degree alertness, facility and 
power in the organized mind. 

IV. Arena of the Inner Self. It is now evident 
that the actual Arena in which the self attains its Goal 
is always within, the external realms serving as in¬ 
ducement to its activities given meanings. The Uni¬ 
verse in which we really live is the Universe we con¬ 
struct for our own use by various mental processes. 
It does not follow, however, that the outside Universe 
has no reality; it simply results that our inner world 
is a more or less correct representative of that Uni¬ 
verse. We mentally live in that representation. For 
you, your inner self is the Center of the only Universe 
you will ever know. 


366 


Creative Personality 


The Arena-Goal of the Self. 

The Arena of the inner self is coextensive with its 
Goal. The self cannot get out of itself, and it can 
find no other Goal than within itself. 

The general processes involved in development of 
the self may now be outlined. We shall first analyze 
the evolution of an hypothetical human self, and we 
shall then modify our analysis with reference to any 
individual self. 

The human self is an expression of the Fundamen¬ 
tal Reality, and manifests in a finite way the Nature 
of that Reality. It is the nature of the hypothetical 
human self to unfold its constitutional elements — that 
is, the elements of Infinite Reality, so far as may be 
possible. The self therefore struggles to come into 
relations with other than itself. This struggle has 
produced the sense-organs, as we have seen, which are 
simply established ways of external communication. 
The struggle has gone on according to tendencies in¬ 
herent in the nature of the self. In other words, the 
self has had tendencies to give meanings to its re¬ 
actions with external existences in certain definite 
ways under certain definite conditions. Its very na¬ 
ture has prevented it from doing otherwise. In time 
the self came to give meanings to these tendencies — 
became aware of them and thus established their sig¬ 
nificance to itself. Thus have arisen in mind the so- 
called “innate ideas” “fundamental principles” “in¬ 
tuitions” of the human mentality. 

When such ideas are enumerated, it is evident that 


Goal of the Self 


36 7 


they are not innate as ideas. As ideas they are men¬ 
tal products of mental experience. The self has 
tendencies according to which it operates in its reac¬ 
tions to existence, and the reactions constitute the 
ideas. The self discovers the tendencies through ex¬ 
perience, and then gives them meaning for itself. The 
process of identifying the tendencies and specifying 
them in ideas, clearly thought out and expressed in 
language, ran on for ages, say from “ Adam ” to 
Aristotle. It was the tendencies that were innate, not 
the ideas. 

Since these tendencies are expressions of Funda¬ 
mental Reality in the nature of the self, they are laws 
of our mental operations, native, original ways the 
self has of mentally acting in relation to existence. 

Enumeration of such “ laws of mind ” may include 
the following — though this listing should not be taken 
as iron-clad, since the total may perhaps be reduced 
by including certain items under other items: Being; 
Action — Movement; Quality; Relation — Sequence 
—-Disjunction; Quantity; Unity and Plurality — 
Number; Identity; Diversity (Sameness and Differ¬ 
ence); Cause; Effect; Time; Space. All such ideas 
represent certain regulative tendencies of the self in 
knowing. 

During the process of evolution, the self came in 
time to recognize certain other tendencies — certain 
differing tendencies — in its knowing, and the recog¬ 
nition constituted reaction giving meaning to the 
tendencies. Expressing the Nature of Fundamental 
Reality,— expressing its own nature,— the self tended 


368 


Creative Personality 


or was compelled to act in certain differing ways in 
its one process of knowing. Discovery of these given 
ways originated corresponding fixed meanings or ideas 
which found representation in appropriate words. 
We may enumerate these mental factors as: Sensa¬ 
tion; Perception; Feeling; Emotion; Passion; Mem¬ 
ory; Imagination; Reasoning; Will. For the sake of 
convenience, these ways of knowing may be classified 
as: The Presentative Faculties — Sensation, Percep¬ 
tion, Feeling, etc.; Re-presentative Faculties — Mem¬ 
ory and Imagination; Volitional — Will. In the last 
analysis all the so-called “ faculties ” fall under one 
supreme head — Acts of the Self in Knozving. 

Employing the word, knowing, in the sense of ap¬ 
prehension, comprehension and intensive understand¬ 
ing, we can not know without involving the so-called 
“ innate ideas,” and employing the word in any of the 
senses indicated, we can not know without mentally 
acting in the ways called the several “ faculties.” 

The nature of the human self as expressing the 
Fundamental Reality, came in time to exhibit to the 
self in various additional tendencies of mental activ¬ 
ity. Recognition of the tendencies constituted reac¬ 
tion of the self to the tendencies in the way of know¬ 
ing them — giving them meaning. The meanings are 
represented by such words as Concept, or General No¬ 
tion — a symbol standing for a class of given kind of 
Existence; Proposition — a complete statement of fact 
or truth; Inference — a conclusion from given propo¬ 
sitions; Judgment — a proposition concluded from 


Goal of the Self 


369 


comparison; Induction — a process of concluding from 
examination of particulars; Deduction — a process 
of concluding from one proposition through another; 

— in short, the whole essential fact and language of 
logical reasoning. 

By a similar process — discovering the tendency of j, 

activities to induce activities, and reacting in meaning 
to such tendencies, and naming the meanings, the self 
has come to classify the latter as the laws of associ¬ 
ation. The laws of association are listed variously, 
but the enumeration will include: Associations of 
Space and Time; of Cause and Effect; of Being and 
Action or Movement; of Identity and Difference; of 
Number; of Quality; of Relation, etc. The inducing 
process here may be called Suggestion. The associ¬ 
ation of the two phases of the self, pre-mental and 
mental, originates in the Tendency of Fundamental 
Reality to express its nature through the self and the 
tendency of the nature of the self to express itself 
through reaction with external activities and to organ¬ 
ize the tendencies of the total activities into the pri¬ 
mary creative workshop — the Subconscious System 
and the Conscious or Mental System. Since the lat¬ 
ter is the chief instrument for unfolding the former 

— or, the total self —• it is, to our thought, the more 
obvious and familiar, and seems to have the greater 
authority in our life. The intimate relation between 
the two phases makes the law of suggestion a prime 
factor in their interactions. Each suggests activities 
to the other. The one suggests because of its very na- 


370 


Creative Personality 


ture,— because of incessant tendency to unfold itself, 

— the other suggests because of its nature and its as¬ 
sumption of authority. 

In the operation of these phases of the self, then, 
have arisen to our thought: 

The Meanings and Laws of the Pre-mental Self; 
The Meanings and Laws of the Mental Self; 

Thus, the Meanings and Laws of Sensation; 

The Meanings and Laws of Perception through the 
Sense-organs; 

Light and the Sciences pertaining to the Ether and 
to Optics; 

Sound and the Science of Acoustics; 

Smell, Taste, Touch and studies in the same, to¬ 
gether with Psychologies and phases of Metaphysics; 
The Meanings and Laws of Memory; 

The Meanings and Laws of Imagination; 

The Meanings and Laws of the Emotions; 

The Meanings and Laws of Reasoning; 

The Meanings and Laws of Will; 

The Meanings and Laws of the Great Departments 
of Human Life in its Mental Output: — Civilization 

— Meanings and Laws; 

Industry, Commerce, Business — their Meanings 
and Laws; 

Government — its Meanings and Laws; 

Science — its Departments and the Meanings and 
Laws; 

Art — its Departments and the Meanings and Laws; 
Ethics — and its Meanings and Laws; 

Religion — its Meanings and Laws; 


Goal of the Self 


371 


Philosophy — the Meanings and Laws; 

Metaphysics — its Meanings and Laws; 

History — its Meanings and Laws; 

General Literature — its Meanings and Laws. 

The interest of the above elaboration is its sugges¬ 
tion of the immense breadth and richness of the Arena 
of the Self. The products of man’s activities in 
knowing are absolutely marvelous, and the inspiration 
of this fact is seen in the suggested possibility of every 
human to enlarge and enrich the Arena of his own 
inner self. 

The greatness of that Arena depends upon the de¬ 
gree with which the individual appropriates the re¬ 
sults of the experiences of the hypothetical self of 
evolution. The difference between the latter and the 
former may be thus indicated: the evolution-self be¬ 
gan with mere primal tendencies, while the individual 
begins with these and the tendencies of heredity. The 
one began with ages of future experience before it, 
while the other begins with the opportunities of three¬ 
score years and ten before it — in the present career. 
The one had its whole mental machinery to achieve 
out of Fundamental Reality, while the other has the 
advantage of the evolutionary achievement. The one 
had to originate language, while the other has merely 
to learn it. The one had the assistance — and that 
only in part — of its own more or less undeveloped 
age, while the other is to-day assisted by the immeas¬ 
urable thought-world which the race has created. 
The inspiration suggested should be great indeed. 

In this rapid sketch we indicate both the Arena of 


372 


Creative Personality 


the human self, and its corresponding Goal. The ac¬ 
tivities, meanings and laws are all related to one an¬ 
other and to the originating self, and consequently 
interact, more or less, incessantly, and in the most 
complicated ways. The subconscious self is always 
active in some manner, the mental self is always en¬ 
gaged in action, repetitions, correlations, complexi¬ 
ties, creatures of habit yet forever restless, forever 
initiative. Meanings come and go, multiply and de¬ 
crease, run in single file, run abreast, run in groups; 
become and are instantly cut off; concentrate and lin¬ 
ger long; appear in ghostly indistinctness, again in 
realistic clearness; proceed sluggishly or swiftly; 
strongly or weakly suggest one another; stick to the 
commonplace or leap to higher matters; merely keep 
busy or create and reconstruct — and “ so runs this 
world away.” Meanwhile, and forever, the Arena of 
the self is exactly so much of the external worlds of 
matter and force and person as it has made its own by 
reacting to those worlds in meanings and their laws. 
And by so much as this process of appropriation has 
gone on, by so much has the self developed. And by 
so much only. The Goal of the self can never tran¬ 
scend that portion of the Universe of matter and 
spirit which it constitutes its Arena. The Goal of the 
self can never transcend the possibilities of itself, as 
a human, as an individual. The Goal is attained by 
incessant action under the laws of growth — already 
considered. Action, under such laws, constitutes con¬ 
sciousness and gives it fulness and richness, consti¬ 
tutes the mind, and makes it alert, facile and power- 


Goal of the Self 


373 


ful, constitutes the pre-mental system, and draws forth 
more and more the nature expressed in it by Funda¬ 
mental Reality. We have, then, the following vital 
conclusions: 

The Goal of the self is limitless, both because Fun¬ 
damental Reality expresses in human nature — thus 
giving it boundless possibilities of unfolding action — 
and because the Reality expresses in a Universe in 
which the self may find unlimited possibilities of re¬ 
action. 

The Goal of the self is determined by aspirations. 
The self is a " magnet;” so to speak, ever attracting 
to itself according to its will and desires. Thus, the 
Goal may achieve in a haphazard way and be wholly 
commonplace — a sort of accident of surroundings, or 
it may achieve in an intelligently directed way and be 
superior and fine. So, also, the Arena and Goal may 
involve phases only of possibilities, such as financial, 
political, artistic, etc., etc. The will is the prime de¬ 
cider in these matters, but the self always acts, by its 
activities, as a magnet, attracting to itself other ex¬ 
ternal and internal activities of the seen and unseen 
worlds and reacting thereto according to its conditions. 
This law of attraction, determining what the Goal of 
any individual self may be, is expressed, thus: “I 
have power to attract to myself everything that I de¬ 
sire or need, and I have power to put from myself that 
which I do not want.” 

The necessary end of a system of activities is the 
expression of its complete nature as a system. The 
highest conceivable Goal of a human being is the con- 


374 


Creative Personality 


tinuous expression of all the self-preservative possi¬ 
bilities of its nature as a human. 

Of such expression the process is Action, the me¬ 
dium Experience, the directing Factors are the Laws 
of Growth, and the dynamic powers are Thought and 
Will. 

The fundamental law of this chapter is: Arena 
Equals Goal. This brings us to the regimes for prac¬ 
tical work. 

The Regimes. 

First — Regime of the Chapter. You are invited to 
proceed no further before you have reread the present 
chapter, again and again, until the conceptions set 
forth are worked into your own body of thought. 
While the ordinary significance of such words as 
Reality, nature, expression, activity, reaction, mean¬ 
ing, law, subconscious self, conscious mind, Arena, 
Goal, may be evident enough, their full import and 
value will scarcely be had by a single reading. It is 
also necessary to gather the scope and richness of 
Arena and Goal through thinking rather than mere 
reading. Our end in view is practical as well as theo¬ 
retical, and the more we “ take in ” this chapter, the 
more will that end be achieved. 

Second — Regime of Self-Correction. You are 
urged to remember that the self is an expression of 
the Fundamental Reality and that your Goal is to be 
attained through incessant self-preservative activity. 
What is the self-preservative should be determined by 
your own experience and that of others interpreted 


Goal of the Self 


37 5 


through this question: Would this particular activity 
make, in the long run, for the best interest of human 
beings as such, and so, of my own life? The answer 
should govern all inner action — and, no less, external 
conduct. 

Third — Regime of Governed Individuality. The 
self shares in the freedom of Fundamental Reality, 
and may create injurious Arena and achieve a wrong 
Goal. Self-preservative exercise of freedom involves 
the free expression of the self according to its own 
will and ideals. You have the right to the perfect 
freedom of your own life in self-preservative expres¬ 
sion. This right is mutual. The use of the right by 
all will be taken care of by the Fundamental Reality 
which expresses in our nature and the external worlds. 
You are invited to put aside all fear in connection 
with the exercise of your right to express your own 
nature and live your own life. Mutuality should 
never mean that one life may dwarf another by de¬ 
mands upon it, nor that any life should dwarf itself 
by yielding to demands which interfere with full ex¬ 
pression of the individual right nature. Be absolutely 
your best self, and define that word, best, for yourself. 

Fourth — Regime of the Unlimited Ideal. The 
Arena of the human self is only bounded by the con¬ 
fines of the Unseen Universe in which our starry sys¬ 
tems appear. The Goal of the self is only limited by 
the nature which Reality has given it. The Goal is 
limitless — for the race, and hence, for each individual 
who will aspire and work for “ all he is worth.” You 
are invited to believe and cherish that thought. If 


376 


Creative Personality 


you do not equal others, resolve upon greater approxi¬ 
mation to equality. If you do not now realize your 
ideals, resolve upon enlarging and enriching both 
Arena and Goal. “ All things are yours.” “ Be 
bold,” said Longfellow; “ begin this day*” Remem¬ 
ber that the inspiration of such lines as these are for 
you: 

Oh, east is east, and west is west, 

And never the twain shall meet, 

Till earth and sky come presently 
Before God’s Judgment Seat. 

But there is neither East nor West, 

Border, nor breed, nor birth, 

When two strong men stand face to face, 

Though they come from the ends of 
the earth. 

Fifth — Regime of the Uplifted Ideal. All exist¬ 
ences which make for development are high or low 
according as the self makes them so. Even the so- 
called commonplace has a meaning too lofty for de¬ 
scription when the self is abroad with appreciation. 
More true is this consequence if the great high-born 
realities are taken in and made much of. You are 
invited to lift your thought to its highest possible 
plane, and to remember that, as the self is a magnet, it 
will attract to itself only on the plane it loves to oc¬ 
cupy. No law is stronger than this. 

Sixth — Regime of Attraction and Repulsion. The 
self attracts and repels by what it is and by what it 
wills. We have power to retain in our thought mean- 


377 


Goal of the Self 

ings which please us, and to refuse to retain meanings 
which displease us. This signifies that we have power 
to repeat or to decline to repeat mental activities ac¬ 
cording to our character and will. Effort to create 
conditions favorable to the coming to us of what we 
want, together with the laws of association, will take 
full care of the attractions. As a daily suggester in 
this regime, the affirmation previously given may be 
repeated, day after day, until it comes to represent an 
unconscious attitude of the whole of the whole self: 
“ I have power to attract to myself every thing that I 
desire or need, and I have power to put from me that 
which I do not want. Each individual particle of mat¬ 
ter and cell of life exhibits normality in proportion as 
it acts according to this law — and always does so 
when free to express its own nature. The most criti¬ 
cal thought on the application of the principle to 
human life reveals its legitimacy. You are a magnet, 
whether or not, and will attract the undesirable and 
needless or the desirable and satisfying, in any event. 
You are invited to make yourself the sole judge, and 
to proceed as follows: 

When you confront matters which you neither need 
nor desire, it may be well to move beyond the sphere 
of their influence. Decide for yourself, under the in¬ 
spiration of the motive of best estate. Having this 
motive, ignore possible consequences, for the Funda¬ 
mental Reality will adjust such consequences un¬ 
erringly. 

Alternatively, it may be well for you to put such 
matters from the sphere of your life by removing 


378 Creative Personality 

them. The preceding paragraph applies here with 
exactness. 

In regard to undesirable and needless matters, it is 
always a right course to insist by concentrated thought: 
“ I put all these things away from mind, completely 
and forever.” This thought will become in time a 
suggester of ways and means — but also act in its own 
manner to influence the conditions through which final 
success is to be attained. 

When you desire or seem to need any object or con¬ 
dition, the regime calls for action on your part making 
the necessary conditions under which your wish can be 
realized. Do all in your power to attain your end. 
Action of some sort is now necessary in order to bring 
in the wire, so to speak, along which your thought may 
induce a circuit of return values. In the meantime, 
assert, insistently and strongly: “I am now attract¬ 
ing to myself this desired thing; I demand it for my¬ 
self.” Results will infallibly justify the efiforts sug¬ 
gested. 

Seventh — Regime of Enlarged and Enriched 
Arena. Consciousness is the sum-total of present 
mental activities. It is forever varying and changing, 
— like a cloud of insects observed in the afternoon 
light. The general group of activities may be greater 
or smaller in differing individuals, but the ideal to be 
sought is a condition in which new meanings,— new 
activities and reactions,— new mental experiences, are 
constantly taken up into the prevailing group. At this 
point applies the affirmation before us — I have power 
to attract and to repulse. The process here involves 


379 


Goal of the Self 

the thought: “ I shall this day come into some new 

experience, get some new meanings, acquire some new 
facts or truths/’ You are invited to make such an 
affirmation a daily thought, making it persistently, 
making it strongly. And the process involves that 
which will invariably be suggested — action corre¬ 
sponding to the thought. If one wishes new things 
and values in mental life, one should make the results 
possible by “ going after them.” This means all sorts 
of variations in your present actions and life: chang¬ 
ing the routine, changing the environment, entering 
new fields of human conduct, literature, science, art, 
and so on. This “ going after ” and the thought cen¬ 
tering it, will in time accomplish great things for any 
mind, any life. 


LAW — Each Stage in Individual Life 
Balances Every Other Stage. 


CHAPTER IX. 


COMPLETED SELF FOR ALL STAGES OF EXISTENCE. 

HE preceding chapter has had somewhat the 



character of a catalogue. This seemed to 
be unavoidable in view of the details in¬ 


volved. The present chapter will be more general in 
its nature. 

We have seen that the goal of the self is completest 
development in person and that the field in which this 
goal is attained is so much of the Universe as the in¬ 
dividual makes his own through knowledge and ac¬ 
tion. By so much as you make the Universe your 
own through the creative process of knowing and the 
assistant process of action, by so much do you develop, 
and thus make your field and your goal always identi¬ 
cal. You can not unfold beyond your field, and your 
field can not outreach your goal. Your goal, there¬ 
fore, has only the limit of the knowable Universe. 
The process of your development must thus cover all 
the possible stages of your existence. This points 
you, each day and year, toward a future which you 
have no reason to close in thought by the duration of 
your physical body. The writer unyieldingly holds to 
the belief that every human individual is immortal in 
conscious personality if he achieves the level of im- 


380 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 381 

mortality. The goal of human existence, then, is al¬ 
ways completest personal development for all stages of 
its being. 

To every thinking mind has come this question: 
“What is the object of my existence?” The answer 
to this question must be precisely as true of any far- 
off stage billions of years hence as it is true of any 
nearer stage in the practical life of business or what¬ 
not. Do not conceive any so-called heavenly goal 
which you can not use in Reno or Wall Street, and 
do not conceive any goal of personal development in 
any earthly occupation which you can not use essen¬ 
tially a million years from now. All true processes 
of human development are prophetic of future devel¬ 
opment whether during this life or during some period 
beyond the accident of death. This does not mean, of 
course, that you are to take with you a typewriting 
machine or a locomotive or a pair of forceps through 
all stages of your career, since you do not necessarily 
expect to take the externals of any development with 
you in all your lines of activity here on earth, but it 
does mean that, just as the young man is bound to 
take the essentials of his unfoldment into his activi¬ 
ties wherever he is called, so the living human is 
bound, whether or no, to take with him whatever he is 
and wherever he goes. A woman said of a man, 
“ What does he expect to take with him ? ” Every 
consecutive ten years of this man’s life he had been 
taking with him precisely what he had made himself 
during each preceding decade. This was exactly as 
true of his character, his mentality, his real self, as it 


382 


Creative Personality 


had been true of his career in his work in practical 
life, where he had achieved, comparatively speaking, 
—-nothing. Now, when this man dies, he will simply 
take with himself — that self. You are invited to re¬ 
member that in essence whatever preparation you 
think you need for success in any period of your career 
on earth you should also insist that you need for any 
period beyond this earth. In a very brief way we 
shall endeavor to indicate some of the things that 
would seem to be pertinent in the direction of our 
chapter-heading. 

The Great Foundation. 

In this book we conceive that all things, including 
Deity, have their origin in, and are phases of, Infinite 
and Eternal Reality. We may not separate things 
from Reality, nor Reality from any of its manifesta¬ 
tions, but for convenience of thought we conceive of 
Reality as fundamental in every object of existence 
and therefore to every object of existence. It is of 
the nature of Reality to manifest itself in individual¬ 
ized forms, and it is equally its nature to make on 
through such manifestations toward some ultimate 
goal of perfection through universal harmony. 

We are unable to conceive of any individualized 
existence superior to person as defined in the chapter 
on that subject. It follows of necessity, then, that no 
instrument to be engaged toward that end can tran¬ 
scend the instruments which enter into person in im¬ 
portance and efficiency. The best thing that Infinite 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 383 

and Eternal Reality can conceivably do is to produce 
a perfect Deity and other types of real person making 
toward perfection. And the only way in which all 
types of person can realize or make toward perfection 
is by seeking always to realize their best possibilities 
in mutual harmony. 

The first evidence of human person appears in the 
evolved human psychic factor. Since this psychic 
factor has its origin in Reality and is Reality, it is 
as truly creative as any definite thinking can make 
Reality creative. 

The psychic factor builds the human self, and the 
human self builds the body and the mind constituting 
the human person. In all these elements of psychic 
factor, self, body and mind you are, on and in and 
for your plane of being, Infinite and Eternal Reality. 
You see, then, that you are Reality, but you must par¬ 
ticularly see that you cooperate with Reality in and 
for your own and its unfoldment. 

You are invited to saturate yourself from day to 
day that you are inherently, and necessarily, a creator, 
and you are especially invited to remember that what 
you shall be in any stage of your existence will depend 
absolutely on the direction you give to your creative 
powers. Let us now go back a little and see what we 
can get out of these considerations. 

We may thus split up the goal of Reality as mani¬ 
fested in the Universe. The great final goal is Per¬ 
fection through Harmony. An intermediate goal is a 
Universe serving as Arena. An instrumental goal is 


384 


Creative Personality 


Human Person. Within this are the instrumental 
goals of Psychic Factor, the Creative Self, and Body 
and Mind. 

Reality thus achieves itself in human person. Hu¬ 
man person achieves itself through body and mind. 

Now, persons differ as do the leaves in Vollombrosa. 
They differ natively and by reason of the immense 
intricacies of heredity. But it is possible for them 
to differ by reason of individual effort, otherwise no 
progress could have been made in the world’s history. 
Individuality, then, is a gift and a quest; a birth-mark 
and a king’s crown. Charlemagne differed from all 
other people in his kingdom but he achieved that in¬ 
dividuality which placed the Iron Crown of Lombardy 
upon his own head. 

Reality gives you your birthright of native indi¬ 
viduality without any effort on your part, because it 
is its nature to do so, and because of its absolutely re¬ 
sistless tendency to multiply its manifestations in all 
possible forms. But this tendency also seeks to drive 
you toward the achievement of acquired individuality 
through your own efforts. Nature has done much for 
us all but if we do not allow Nature to do more through 
our own improving efforts, we are all stand-stills. 
Had this always been the case, the race would always 
have been a race of semi-simians or fools. In the in¬ 
terest of the goals already indicated Reality has ex¬ 
pressed itself in sex. This, we have reason to believe, 
is purely physiological. Reality, or the Nature of 
Things, tends ultimately to develop completest person¬ 
ality, and this means most divergent individuality. 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 385 

The drive of things in individualized manifestations 
of Reality would naturally tend toward differences in 
every individual object of existence. You will never 
find, for example, two mineral specimens or two living 
plants precisely alike. The old Bible writer declared 
that there is nothing new under the sun, and every¬ 
thing around him absolutely contradicted his state¬ 
ment. Natural individuality is exactly as true as Dar¬ 
win’s natural selection. But natural selection is one 
of the means by which natural individuality is achieved. 
Now, mating is a phase of natural selection. And 
mating in human life is a hit-or-miss process by which 
natural individuality obtains in the race. The impor¬ 
tance of this mating is absolutely transcendent. And, 
in a harmony with the new and somewhat vague 
science of eugenics,— which harmony will not be dis¬ 
covered at first by the promoters of that science,— the 
chief ideal results of human mating should appear in 
those who mate. 

The majority of writers on the subject of mar¬ 
riage, if they have eugenics in view, value the chil¬ 
dren more than they do the parents. This is not stat¬ 
ing the equation as it ought to be stated. We do not 
here believe the maxim, right mating for right chil¬ 
dren, but we insist that the truth is this, right mating 
for the sake of the people that mate. When this ideal 
is realized, the offspring infallibly will be right. Of 
course, this is an ideal and universal statement, and 
no exceptions that you can produce will disprove it. 

In this chapter we are always seeking completest 
personality for all stages of existence. This means 


386 Creative Personality 

human individuality, and, therefore, means the right 
sort of mating. 

Without going into detailed phases of eugenics, we 
hold that two ideals are absolutely indispensable to 
right mating for the best individualized personality. 
The first ideal is the great Passion of Love, and the 
second ideal is Self-interest, which means idealized 
mutuality. It is evident to a running fool that a large 
proportion of human marriages do not mean real love 
and that they do mean selfishness rather than self-in¬ 
terest. Real love is so deep, and fine, and high, and 
abiding that selfishness is no more possible in its pres¬ 
ence than is hatred in the heart of God. 

Many people protest their love for their mates when 
they are only regardful of their* selfishness. “ Love 
suffereth long and is kind.” In real human mating 
love idealizes its object and either sees therein no evil 
or covers it with its gracious mantle. In real mating 
love does not buy itself hats, shoes, clothing, and take 
excursions, while challenging its mate’s personal or 
household expenses. In real human mating there is 
one person, glad sacrifice each in the interest of the 
other, and one supreme goal, the completest self-in¬ 
terest of the one through the completest self-interest 
of the other. If you do not like this, you would better 
begin with the most ordinary state legislation on eu¬ 
genics, for there is where you belong. 

Selfishness is hell in this world, and the worst form 
of selfishness is that which masks itself under the guise 
of a selfish love. 

When mating is right, love will be right, and when 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 387 

love is not right mates would better go apart. But 
if mating and love are right each life will have its own 
freedom under the sweet influences of mutuality, and 
infallibly personality will have the largest opportunity 
for realizing the full possibilities of Reality in its un¬ 
restrained individuality. 

Therefore, in the interest of complete personal indi¬ 
viduality, see that you mate right and love right. 
And remember that this injunction is offered you 
primarily for your own sake. Because, it is absolutely 
impossible that you should achieve completest person¬ 
ality unless your love means the highest and best wel¬ 
fare of your mate. If this is your intention, matters 
will work out as well as the present stage of human ex¬ 
istence will permit; if this is not your conscious in¬ 
tention, matters will work out deadly wrong to you. 

We thus make out the goal of our existence as some 
ultimate stage of universal harmony achieved through 
the continuous development of completest personality, 
human or otherwise, expressing itself in free and unre¬ 
strained individuality consistent with that harmony. 
Let us now indicate in a general way some of the ob¬ 
vious methods. 


The Great Process. 

The Power-Books always try to tell you how to 
achieve the thing set before you. Necessarily they 
more or less repeat each the instruction of the other. 
We shall here treat some of the subjects discussed in 
preceding chapters. But we do this for the sake of an 
impression and a general view which will constitute 


388 


Creative Personality 


the finale of the present chapter and of this book. 
The process now to be suggested covers the following 
items. Human life consists of Action and Thought. 
Now let us look at these matters. 

All human action which tends in a general way to¬ 
ward the betterment of the race is legitimate and is 
immensely important. Let not the business man think 
superciliously of the philosopher, nor the scholar of 
the business man, nor the scientist of the poet, nor the 
preacher of the heretical blacksmith. This world is 
like an Atlantic liner making its way from port to port. 
The captain’s action is no more important than the 
stoker’s, and the engineer’s brains are just now as 
valuable to the millionaire passenger’s business as his 
business is important to his own life. The world has 
its place in the great Galactic Circle and is making its 
way — through space and toward the goal of human 
development. Everywhere on board this mighty ship 
is action of innumerable varieties, and every activity 
that tends to help her along has the sanction and the 
dignity of the Universal Reality on its own way to¬ 
ward ultimate unfoldment. We want you to get the 
full sense of this tremendous idea, and, getting that 
sense to swing yourself into line for the whole and 
the best that’s in you. A dog lies here at my feet, and 
he is happy if I love him, but you are a human, and, 
as a type, the best thing Reality could do on this earth. 
That puts some distance between you and the dog. 
You are invited to comport your action with that dis¬ 
tance. Whatever your action may be, compel it to 
contribute, not to your scholarship, not to your busi- 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 389 


ness, not to your trade, Heavenly Day, no! Make it 
contribute toward your completest personal develop¬ 
ment. 

If you will seek to do this, by so much will you dis¬ 
cover that your action is ruled by Thought. Every 
thought you have is a mental activity created by your¬ 
self. You seem to get your thoughts, but you can not 
get them until you create them. Your thoughts run in 
certain regularly established ways which are some¬ 
times called “ faculties,” and which constitute your 
mind. All these are the products of your knowing 
self. And each individual exercise of these *' facul¬ 
ties ” is a mental activity that you have brought into 
existence. We cover these propositions by the words, 
your native creative mentality. You began as an in¬ 
fant which had capacities for mind, but which had to 
realize those capacities in the creation of a mind. 
This is a great thing. If you had the power to create 
a mind, and if you have the power this instant to create 
any mental activity, then you must also have the power 
to employ those mental activities in an additional crea¬ 
tive sense. This you do when you think out a plan, or 
make a great resolution, or build a business, or invent 
a machine, or initiate or carry on a great enterprise. 
You here exhibit your ability to achieve acquired cre¬ 
ative power. Every successful life and all human 
progress exhibit these two phases of creative men¬ 
tality. Success and progress are not left to the mere 
chance play of mind’s activities; they are results of 
directive effort creating out of the products of that play 
larger and newer advancements. We thus say that the 


390 


Creative Personality 


process of realizing completest human personality in¬ 
volves Action and the Two-fold Creative Thought. 

Now, acquired creative thought is always in some 
form a Demand. It always means a desire to reach 
some goal, immediate or remote. This desire is al¬ 
ways a specific thought and that thought is a demand 
that, by means of other assisting thought and action, 
a goal shall be reached. This means that the demand- 
thought shall lay hold of the mechanism of this Uni¬ 
verse and compel the same to do its bidding. Man is a 
part of the Universe, and he is a force therein, because 
he is a thinker, and because he may make his thought 
creative and thus compulsory on the elements of Na¬ 
ture. If, now, we draw out of these general considera¬ 
tions the heart of them, we are prepared to affirm that 
a specifically formulated demand is a force which, 
rightly formulated, deeply enough desired, and re¬ 
peated for long without other contradictory thoughts, 
is a creative and compelling force which the Nature 
of Things, or Reality, or the Universe, has provided 
for, so to speak, and which must be obeyed. 

Our goal here is completest personality, and you are 
invited to apply your best creative thought and the law 
or force of demand in the interest of that goal, what¬ 
ever the general or specific lines of your action may be. 
If you want a thing, think for it, demand for it, and act 
for it. If you want completest personality, whether 
through business, or profession, or trade, or what-not, 
think out the details within your reach in your line 
of action, think them into harmony with that goal, for¬ 
mulate your demand with reference to those details 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 391 

in harmony with that goal, and then act, incessantly 
act. 

A further element in the process of achieving com- 
pletest personality may be seen in Reaction of the Self 
to its Externals. This element, as we shall see later 
on, is immensely important. In your mental life you 
have reactions (that is, actions back) to all sorts of 
activities going on within the mind. In your mental 
life you have also reactions to actions upon you of the 
external world. In a general way you can not avoid 
these reactions to externals, so long as you live, move, 
and have your being. But you have the power some¬ 
what to select among these reactions, and, broadly 
speaking, to direct your reactions according to your 
goals and ideals. You are not, for example, obliged to 
attend to all the objects of your senses, and you may 
to a sufficient degree determine the objects to which 
you will attend. These two facts, selection and direc¬ 
tion, give us our cue to the importance of this whole 
matter of mental reactions to the external world. 

Always the questions extremely pertinent to our re¬ 
actions are these. First, do we become habituated to 
automatic reactions without regard to our selective and 
directive abilities? When we do this we invariably 
come to the stand-still. This, as an instance, is what 
the purely routine man does, always doing the things 
called for by the objects or work before him, and who 
never starts up any initiative unless he is pitch-forked 
into it. The opposite kind of person refuses ,to act 
merely because he is smitten by mere actions upon him, 
day after day, and who tries so far as is consistent with 


'392 


Creative Personality 


the end in view to determine his reactions to actions of 
outside things upon him. This person is not at a stand¬ 
still; he is progressive, that is, he selects and directs 
his mental reactions — his mental and his physical life. 
A million examples of the stand-still man might be ad¬ 
duced, but one or two must here suffice. The clerk 
who only does what he is told to do or what some im¬ 
pulse of any exigent situation may call for stands 
practically still day after day. The employer whose 
mind jumps around from one thing to another merely 
because the jumping is inspired by some external in¬ 
fluence in his own work is also a stand-still man. The 
mind which merely follows its observations of natural 
objects from time to time is a stand-still mind. The 
individual who simply follows the impulses of mental 
reactions to pedagogical, or theological, or religious in¬ 
struction, is at a stand-still. The corpse is at a stand¬ 
still because it does not select and direct its responses 
to external actions upon it. In the sense of this para¬ 
graph there are too many dead people on this earth. 
We are not automata but are living, sentient beings 
possessed of intelligence and will. We should not, 
therefore, permit ourselves to be buffeted about by the 
innumerable actions of the world upon us, but should 
take ourselves in hand, and improvingly decide upon 
those influences which we shall allow to affect us, and 
should incessantly exercise this ability in the interest 
of unceasing improvement of our personal possibilities. 

A further phase of this matter of reactions is seen 
in what here may be called the Balance of Reactions. 
We are beings possessed of the power to know and to 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 393 

use the external world. Now, the process of knowing 
is wholly interior, but the process of using is, as we 
may say, exterior. In other words, we have our in¬ 
terior mental life, and we are in reaction with the life 
of the external world, including life of persons. A 
proper balance between our internal life and that life 
which consists of our reactions to external existences 
is absolutely indispensable to completest personality. 
If you are wholly occupied with your own mental 
activities, you become a recluse, and it is possible that 
you may be no more than an ape. If you are wholly 
occupied with the external world, you may as well be 
called an ape, for under such conditions your person¬ 
ality can never unfold. Now, a right balance between 
the mental life which is just absorbed in its own activi¬ 
ties and the life which is just run by external things is 
of supreme importance in the development of com¬ 
pletest personality for any stage of human existence. 
This little matter of balance will emphatically appear 
in the final pages of this book. 

It should always be remembered that these rather 
general suggestions have an intensely practical appli¬ 
cation to life. We can not, of course, go into the de¬ 
tails of the application, since doing this would exhaust 
the volume. Perhaps, if you will ask yourself this 
question: “ What shall I take with me from this day 

into to-morrow ? ” you will begin to seek some answers 
to that question, and will thus begin to discover some 
of the details. Suppose, now, that you, the apprentice 
to some trade, ask the question: “ What shall I take 

with me from these days and this year of my work into 


394 Creative Personality 

my mastership ? ” you also will begiiAo see the chal¬ 
lenging details of mastership thronging you like the 
lords of creation. And if, as a human engaged in any 
line of thought and action, you will ask yourself the 
question: “ What am. I getting out of this thought 
and action for the future of forty years or the future 
of forty centuries? ” you will discover some very large 
practical details which will make their importance felt 
in some inspiring and compelling way. The author can 
give you certain suggestions about making the garden 
of your life, but he can not make that garden, for two 
reasons: first, he has his own garden to make, and, 
secondly, you are the only person in the Universe that 
can make your garden. This is the basis and the secret 
of harmonious mutuality. You have your own cre¬ 
ative powers, and the other person has his or her own 
creative powers, and each alone can use them, and if 
each uses these powers for completest personality, the 
result will be achievement mutual, harmonious, and 
relatively perfect. We will now try to carry the proc¬ 
ess over into the two great stages of human life, here 
and hereafter. 

Completest Personality for any Earthly 
Stage. 

We are to be concerned now, not with questions of 
success as ordinarily conceived, since success will al¬ 
ways follow the true all-around development of the 
person. This, is true because developing person and 
external world are, in the nature of things, adapted to 
each other. Reality tends to do precisely this, to un- 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 395 


fold your possibilities to best estate, and if you assist 
that tendency, Reality must react beneficially in your 
behalf. The trouble with the failure is himself, and 
the reward of the growing self is the response of the 
nature of things. The true success of unfolding per¬ 
sonality is unfoldment, but true unfoldment means true 
success. The main thing, therefore, is personal de¬ 
velopment. Personal development is achieved through 
a proper balance of reactions of the-knowing self to it¬ 
self and to external environment. 

We may cover this subject of completest personality 
in two ways: First, by reference to certain divisions 
of life, and, secondly, by reference to increasing ef¬ 
ficiency in any line of effort. 

We may begin the first reference with the period of 
youth. Early childhood is a marvel in the unfoldment 
of the personal powers. The world assails the self in¬ 
cessantly with innumerable activities, and the self re¬ 
acts with astonishing facility and accuracy and with 
very little selective and directive control of its re¬ 
actions. Nevertheless, the greater world confronts the 
self, and imperiously demands that the selective and 
directive powers shall be brought into exercise. Life 
now asks the young man or the young woman, “ What 
do you intend to take with you out of this period 
of your youth into the period of your man¬ 
hood or womanhood ? ” Here is the grammar school, 
the high school, the college; or, here is the fac¬ 
tory, the shop, the store, the office. Here also is 
the town and the social environment. All these words 
represent phases of the external world limited by 


396 


Creative Personality 


knowledge and experience. That is to say, these words 
represent departments of life which incessantly assail 
the self. To the casual observer it would seem that 
the reactions of the self to the actions upon it sug¬ 
gested are about as automatic as those of a monkey to 
an African forest. Nevertheless, there is in childhood 
and youth the element of selective-directive reaction. 
If this element can be brought into realization, so that 
the inner life grows in balance with the external life, 
infallibly will follow preparedness for any line of effort 
entered and for the period of the next forty years. 
One question by means of which this end of prepared¬ 
ness may be secured is this: “ What do you intend to 

make of yourself ? ” In ninety cases out of one hun¬ 
dred that question will be answered in terms of trade, 
business, or profession. But this is precisely not the 
point. Completest personality is only incidentally a 
matter of trade, business, or profession; it could be 
developed if there were no trades, no businesses, no 
professions. What you intend to make of yourself 
concerns the proper development and balance of the 
activities of your inner life in reaction to the activities 
of the external world, whatever you do, wherever 
you chance to be. Absolutely all the physical and 
mental activities which you have brought into play in 
your present trade, or business, or profession, may just 
as well and as efficiently have been brought into play in 
some other trade, business, or profession — except in 
the case of very rare special abilities resulting from in¬ 
heritance. In the latter instances, we should also have 
various departments of the specialized life any one of 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 397 

which would demonstrate the proposition that com- 
pletest personality need not be the outcome of effort 
in a particular line of action and reaction, but might re¬ 
sult from any other related line. Broadly stated, we 
do not have to follow this, that, or the other highway 
of endeavor in order to achieve completest personality, 
and so, we can not measure our success in achievement 
of completest personality in terms of success in trade, 
or business or profession. Hence, the question which 
confronts youth is always, not what it shall do with 
its body, or its mind, but what it shall do with that 
self which is capable of completest unfoldment wher¬ 
ever it is placed and whatever it is called upon to do. 
But, you see, here is exactly where the most of them 
fail. Usually it is always a question of trade for the 
sake of wages, of business for the sake of profits, of 
profession for the sake of money and fame. Conse¬ 
quently, when the wage is good, when the profits are 
large, when the fame and the income are satisfactory, 
the man comes to a stand-still, because he has occupied 
himself with lower goals than that of completest per¬ 
sonality. But by so much as the youth emphasizes 
the ideals of his own development, achieved somehow, 
anywhere, by so much has he infallibly perfected him¬ 
self in his trade, business, or profession, and by so 
much is it absolutely inevitable that he will take into 
the next period of his life the habit and the imperious 
impulse of improvement, so that between the age of 
twenty and sixty his achievements in his work will ar¬ 
rest and compel attention, and will forward him as a 
growing power into the last stage of his earthly career 


398 


Creative Personality 


and launch him forth into the next world ready to take 
his place there also where he belongs, a master. 

We now consider the period from the age of twenty 
to that of forty. If the preceding period has been 
anywhere near right, the next period will be free from 
the stand-still, and will exhibit that balance between 
the inner life and the external life, or that balance of 
the reaction of self to self and reaction of self to the 
external world, which must infallibly secure the com- 
pletest personal development, provided — the indi¬ 
vidual does not permit himself to become contented 
with mere financial gains. The wage-earner and the 
tradesman who, after his twentieth year, contents him¬ 
self with his earnings, prophesies that his earnings will 
never pass the average. There is always plenty of 
common work to do in this world, and there are always 
plenty of people to do it, but those who learn how to do 
the uncommon work have had to think of something 
superior to their earnings. And the man who puts his 
mind upon the development of himself in that work is 
absolutely sure of increasing his earnings because the 
nature of things forever emphasizes the value of the 
self above any kind of work in which it is engaged. 
And the nature of things always rewards the struggle 
of the self in terms not only of personal development 
but also in terms of material means by which that de¬ 
velopment is assisted. This is a law which no man can 
gainsay. The law applies also to business and the pro¬ 
fessional life. The merchant and the professional 
man who are satisfied with the income of so-called 
success are apt to settle down on the level of dollars 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 399 


and cents, and finally to lose out in the race with their 
competitors. The reason is, that personal efficiency 
is always greater than income and that personal effi¬ 
ciency can never be at its best when the individual 
thinks more of financial rewards than he thinks of him¬ 
self. And if financial rewards are emphasized above 
the unfoldment of person, there is nothing left but 
money, and the world is filled with mere money-get¬ 
ters who amount to nothing otherwise. It is almost a 
disgrace for a man to die a millionaire, and it is alto¬ 
gether a disgrace to be nothing better. The trouble 
here is contentment with gold, and this absolutely de¬ 
stroys the value of forty years of effort. The Uni¬ 
verse emphasizes above all things the fact of person 
and the unfoldment of person. We have special illus¬ 
trations in the professional world. The writer is ac¬ 
quainted with an oculist whose office is thronged with 
patients and whose income is probably ten thousand 
dollars a year. This man talks frequently about the 
“ big men ” in his profession who live somewhere else, 
but he is contented with his income, for, if he were not, 
he would utilize his income and his abilities to the end 
of becoming a “ big man ” himself. He will never do 
anything wonderful for the human eye, and will never 
become great in his profession, because he has reached 
the stand-still of the dollar. It is always so, and it is 
so everywhere. Nothing in the world will prevent the 
stand-still in human life save the desperate determina¬ 
tion for personal development and for that right bal¬ 
ance of mental reactions to the external world of mat¬ 
ter and men which shall infallibly secure preparation 


400 


Creative Personality 


in any stage of existence for that which is to follow. 
You are invited to give the preceding sentences care¬ 
ful consideration, and to give vastly more attention to 
your selfhood than you do to your trade, business or 
profession. And you are invited to be assured that 
if you will do this your trade, business and profession 
will follow as a matter of course. 

The next period from sixty on will take care of 
itself if you have insisted upon personal develop¬ 
ment, because each preceding period has been a prep¬ 
aration thereto. Two things are now to be avoided: 
Domination by some fantastic idea of a heavenly fu¬ 
ture and Disregard for any future. The one is the 
tyranny of a narrowly conceived religion, and the 
other is the tyranny of irreligion. We should not, 
after the age of sixty, live a double life, that of so- 
called old age dominated by notions of a heavenly 
reward and divorced from activities in the present 
world, and neither should we live contentedly dur¬ 
ing the period from sixty on regardless of the fu¬ 
ture. The main question here, as during preceding 
periods, concerns the individual’s developed powers 
# to live in this period at his best, and thus to be mas¬ 
ter in any succeeding period. If you have made 
your life tell as best you may have done, reasonably 
speaking, the future will take care of itself. Now this 
is not a question of religion at all, in the ordinary sense 
of the word, since any person who has really lived for 
personal completeness, as a Hebrew, a Buddhist, a 
Christian, or an African chief, has always prepared 
himself for the future either in this world or the next. 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 401 

This is what true religion really means — personal de¬ 
velopment, and it does not mean anything else, Heaven 
and Hell to the contrary notwithstanding. We say 
these things because we desire that our readers should 
definitely understand that the whole subject of human 
life resolves itself into the one simple question of what 
a man actually is. If one has made the most of him¬ 
self, in a reasonable sense, his future is assured. Re¬ 
ligions may have helped him, but they have only helped 
him, since this man would have done the same with any 
religion and even without any religion — taking re¬ 
ligion in its ordinary sense. 

Having taken this little survey of self-improvement 
in the way of periods of years, we now proceed to in¬ 
dicate the same general thought as concerning personal 
completeness sought in and through any line of human 
effort. 

In view of the fact that all preceding pages have had 
to do with development of person, we must be con¬ 
tented with a few great fundamental principles which 
ought to make toward that end and which will lead us 
onward toward the final great conception of this book. 
We have said that the goal of human life is not to be 
found in mere success in the way of any trade, busi¬ 
ness or profession. But we do not minimize these 
fields of labor and the success which may be achieved 
therein. The fields broadly cover the activities of body 
and mind, and we now know that action and thought 
are indispensable means through which success and 
personal development may be achieved. You there¬ 
fore understand that your work is important, but you 


402 


Creative Personality 


are invited to understand that your work' is only im¬ 
portant as it makes toward personal completeness. If, 
then, this end is sought, the two results will infallibly 
follow, according to your capacities, success and the 
continuous unfoldment of your best powers. The 
principles will now be given. 

Will, energy, and alertness in the held of work to 
which you devote yourself. The growing individual 
must seek to develop will-power, strong, balanced and 
directive, because this alone will generate the energy 
required and drive you forward toward your goal. 
The individual must cultivate energy of body and 
mind continuous and adequate, because the demands 
of his work and of completest personality will make 
unceasing drafts on all his powers. The individual 
must have alertness in order to see his opportunities 
and to make the most of them. These elements will 
make the ordinary master in trade, business or pro¬ 
fession, according to capacities, which no man can find 
out until he is tried for from sixty to a hundred thou¬ 
sand years. 'Now let us illustrate. 

We shall mark off our progress by advancement in 
any line of work. Here is a young man in the 
machine-shop who is supposed to be learning his trade. 
He does whatever task is given him in a decent sort of 
way, collects his wages, and in due time will become a 
kind of “ master.” Here is another man in the same 
shop who takes hold of the tasks given him, but who 
throws his energy into his work and forever keeps his 
whole nature alert to kinds of work that other men are 
doing. His ideal is personal completeness as a ma- 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 403 

chinist, not the mere collection of wages. A rush order 
comes in to the office for a steel shaft turned to cer¬ 
tain dimensions — and the man who has always done 
this work is sick, or dead. Who shall control the lathe 
in which this shaft is to be locked? The man who 
has put his will, energy, and especially alertness of 
knowing how to do some other things than those which 
he has been told to do, and who has thus sought to be 
a real master mechanic. You see precisely the same 
thing among the clerks, the business men, and the law¬ 
yers and the doctors. By so much as they are alert 
with all energy* and will-power to know how to do 
something more* thaa the mere thing immediately in 
hand, by so much, do they improve, their personal 
capacities and advertise that fact by their work. Al¬ 
ways does any kind of worker find himself confronted 
by the unusual and. the unexpected, and always is it 
necessary that some one should overcome the diffi¬ 
culties. And he who has tried to “ know more than the 
law allows ” is always the man for the place. Now 
this is not so much because this individual has pre¬ 
pared himself for the unusual and the unexpected of 
some particular kind, but it is because he has prepared 
himself for all things’ unusual and unexpected. In 
ether words, he has made the most of himself. 

Determination to accomplish more of customary lines 
of work. This principle is not suggested in the in¬ 
terest of any employer or of any financial success. 
The principle infallibly suggests means by which that 
more can be accomplished. Now that is precisely the 
point. If the individual resolves to do more, whether 


404 


Creative Personality 


in trade, business or profession, his mind will get to 
work on the question how to achieve this end with less 
effort and time. The mental effort will, of course, 
contribute toward personal development. 

Determination to know and do something different. 
The writer may be pardoned if he employs a personal 
illustration. Years ago he resolved that he would 
never push the button of any time-registering machine, 
and that he would not long be dependent on the 
beck and call of king, priest, or gospellor, because 
he would produce something that no other man had 
produced. He is not a millionaire, but the work of 
making the Power-Books has been of the greatest pos¬ 
sible value in his own development, and he believes that 
he has really done something new. The intention of 
this paragraph is to inspire its readers to seek to dis¬ 
cover new ways of personal unfoldment through all 
the opportunities of the work in which they are en¬ 
gaged and through opportunities outside of that work 
which the world is forever presenting to all of us. 

High ideals for completest selfhood. No man 
should regard himself as a mere instrument for the 
turning of a steel shaft, or the winning of a law case, 
or the running of a store or factory, for that is de¬ 
gradation. How are you superior to the ordinary 
slave if you permit yourself to live merely for a shop, 
or a doctor’s gig, or the executive office of a nation? 
There is one man living to-day who has always been 
greater than any position or office that he has held. 
Evidently he has always made his work count not alone 
for the work, but for Theodore Roosevelt. And in 


% 

Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 405 

this ambition he has served his time because he has 
sought personal development, and has achieved the 
latter because he has tried to serve his time. The man 
who becomes a slave to his work for the sake of his 
work or of money or fame, infallibly exhibits selfish¬ 
ness; and the man who seeks to make absolutely the 
most of himself possible for the sake of that self bal¬ 
anced in its reactions with other people and the world 
will infallibly do the best kind of work and prepare 
himself as he goes on for any stage of existence to 
which life will call him. But this is no dream. It 
means the steady and persistent application of the prin¬ 
ciples here suggested, and, it may perhaps be said, 
of the instructions of this book. These reflections 
bring us on to our final discussion. 

COMPLETEST PERSONALITY FOR UNSEEN WORLDS 

All through this book there is the conception of 
Reality as the Ground and Source of every individual 
object of existence. Of course it is understood that 
this conception is a theory, but it should be understood 
that the theory is not without reasons. If every indi¬ 
vidual object of existence is a manifestation of Reality, 
then every such existence is Reality, and it follows that 
Reality is every such existence. 

It seems to be the nature of every individual object 
of existence to be itself, and, therefore, to be Reality. 
When we see this proposition, we know that Reality is 
not a Somewhat apart from the thing, but that the 
thing is Reality, and that Reality is the thing. 

In the mental arena only one reason can be assigned 


406 Creative Personality 

for this nature of things and for this operation of 
Reality,— to wit, the tendency of things to be what 
they are, and the tendency of Reality to manifest in 
the things. 

If we ask, in the mental arena, the reason for these 
tendencies, we must answer as follows: Conceiving 
some eternal and infinite Reality which is always the 
same and identical throughout with itself, and which 
constitutes the sole reason for its own existence, as the 
Essence, Ground and Source of all things, and in¬ 
vestigating objects as we find them, we must perceive 
the tendencies indicated, and we can only indicate the 
end in this way: By means of individualized mani¬ 
festations of itself the Reality which is in all things 
and is all things, when it achieves individualized per¬ 
son, sets itself as person over against itself as not per¬ 
son. Only in this way can the most fundamental thing 
in the Universe come into play — Reaction. There can 
be no conceivable progress save through reaction. 
Every individual object of existence is a particular 
manifestation of Reality and is Reality. But every 
individual object of existence unfolds to its final stage 
of development because it reacts with other phases of 
Reality which are not itself. This is only a fact of 
ordinary observation put into the terms of the language 
of this book. 

When this stage of the existence of person is at¬ 
tained, the intelligence of the reaction has reached the 
highest point known. Now, as we have seen, person 
is the following exhibit of Reality: There is psychic 
factor, there is the human self, there is the body and 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 407 

there is the mind. Through psychic factor self, body, 
and mind, Reality achieves the climax of its individu¬ 
alized manifestations in person with its individualized 
manifestations as person and as not person. You see, 
then, that the departments of person are its own instru¬ 
ments by means of which Reality comes into reaction 
with itself and thus unfolds its highest possibilities. 

Now, you are invited to assume that every element 
in your nature is Reality. When you get this idea, 
and if you follow the instruction of preceding pages, 
you will see that every phase of your person is an in¬ 
strument by means of which you yourself may come 
into reaction with the great Universe about you, and by 
means of which you may assist the Reality of the Uni¬ 
verse to unfold itself toward its final goal — perfec¬ 
tion through harmony. Now let us see about all this. 

Thus, the psychic factor which has built your self 
puts yourself by reason of that fact into touch with the 
external world. Now, this touch with the external 
world is realized through the body which you have 
built and through the mind which you have established. 
Let us look at these matters also a moment. 

We take the body which is yours. Without that 
body you could not know anything, and you could 
not get into relation with anything external to your¬ 
self. You have your senses and you have your various 
physical external members. Through the senses, see¬ 
ing, hearing, feeling, taste, touch, and through hands, 
feet, etc., you are brought into relation with that which 
is not yourself in its innumerable forms. The effi¬ 
ciency of your life depends in part upon the use you 


408 


Creative Personality 


make of your senses and your members. Refer to 
any familiar example. By so much as you compel this 
body to react properly to the external world about you, 
by so much, you see, does your physical efficiency im¬ 
prove. Everybody knows these facts, although they 
may here be stated in rather unfamiliar terms. Your 
body is your instrument by means of which you make 
your way through life. And, so far forth, your per¬ 
sonal efficiency in this world depends upon the degree 
in which you really do make that body an adequate in¬ 
strument for right relations with all things about you. 
We need not go further into details, because the 
proposition is perfectly evident. 

But the great instrument by which you throw your 
body, its senses and its members, into adequate rela¬ 
tions with the external world, is the mind. We know 
that the mind is a system of activities of the self in 
knowing, which system, taken as a whole, controls the 
senses and the physical members. The mind, there¬ 
fore, is our second great instrument of reaction with 
the Universe. You have to know that Universe, more 
or less, and you have to know how to use the mind 
and the body in order to come into growing relations 
with that which is not yourself. The knowing and the 
using are purely mental. You can find examples of 
these propositions in any day of your work and in any 
line of human effort. We have simply said here what 
it means to learn a trade, or to build a business or to 
succeed in a profession. 

These things are what everybody does and will dis¬ 
cover if he stops to think. Present observation shows 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 409 

that we unfold personal capacities by means of right 
reactions with externals, and that the two great instru¬ 
ments of such unfoldment are body and mind. 
Whether in the period of youth, or in the period from 
forty to sixty, or from thence on in this world, all 
growth is the result of right reactions in body and mind 
to external existences. 

We see, then, that the present life really sums up in 
this: Have we made body and mind efficient to main¬ 
tain themselves and to maintain continuous improving 
reactions with outside environments? By so much as 
we have achieved these results have we developed in 
person and succeeded in life. 

This all concerns the present stage. The writer be¬ 
lieves that we have another stage of existence if we 
manage to attain its level. Everybody assumes that 
we have to die. Most people suppose that this dying 
merely concerns the physical structure. If you do not 
believe this, stop reading. If you do believe this, the 
question arises: Do you expect to live hereafter in a 
structure external to your inner self which will answer 
the great fundamental purposes of your present body 
and by means of which you should keep in touch with 
the unseen Universe, and maintain those right rela¬ 
tions therewith through which you shall grow and se¬ 
cure happiness. This is our first question about the 
future. Our next question concerns the mind. That 
factor involves the use of your mind in any other stage 
of existence for such relations with.the external Uni¬ 
verse as may enable you to maintain your individuality 
and to achieve your highest possibilities. 


410 


Creative Personality 


We do not wish to become disembodied spirits, we do 
not wish to remain imbeciles, but we do wish to sus¬ 
tain such conscious relations with any possible future 
unseen environment that we may realize therein our 
highest possibilities and our greatest happiness. The 
religions of the world set forth these ideals, but they 
do not tell us much about the ways in which we can 
realize those ideals, contenting themselves with the 
affirmations that we must believe what they teach, 
whether or not we are to carry onward a body worth 
while or any adequate instrument of mind. We here 
say that any religion is good if it expects you to carry 
into the next world some sort of a body adequate to 
that world and some sort of a mind adequate to con¬ 
tinuous unfoldment and personal happiness. But what 
is true here, must be true anywhere else. If we need 
a body and mind here in order to keep in touch with the 
external Universe, and to unfold and be happy, we 
certainly shall need a body and mind in any future 
stage of existence for the same stupendous purposes. 
The questions, then, what kind of body do you expect 
to have in the next world, and what kind of mind do 
you expect to have in the next world ? look immensely 
important. The writer now proceeds to the boldest 
things he has ever written. We want to tell you how 
to achieve these great results. 

We begin with the instrument of the body. The 
external structure of yourself in the next world will 
follow the creative impulses and principles which you 
employ in regard to your present physical body. Re¬ 
member, please, that, generally speaking, and making 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 411 

due allowances for inheritance, the body you now in¬ 
habit, you have created and that it represents you in 
the world of life. You may have physical ailments, 
deformities, and all sorts of physical troubles, but if 
your mental attitude toward that body is fine, and high, 
and ideally loving, this fact will infallibly determine for 
you a body adequate to your uses in the next world. 
And if you continually maintain the thought that you 
want a body for that world which shall bring you into 
right relations with future environments, that thought 
will infallibly produce its influence in creating for you 
a structure which shall be satisfactory according to 
your mental development. This is very good busi¬ 
ness. The youth needs an adequate body for the next 
period of his earthly career, so that he may handle life 
and things for his success and his personal unfoldment. 
Every human individual needs, similarly, some sort of 
body by means of which he may unfold and secure hap¬ 
piness through reactions with worlds that are not ma¬ 
terial. We should have better bodies here if we gave 
them better attention here and constantly maintained 
the demanding thought th.at they must become more 
and more adequate. 

You are invited, then, to make the thought an im¬ 
perious factor in your life: A body perfect to all de¬ 
mands upon it in the unseen world. You do not wish 
to live hereafter in a structure which you can not use 
in the best possible way under all unseen circumstances 
and conditions. Y'ou wish exactly the opposite: A 
body that shall always make it possible for you to use 
externals for your own best interests — anywhere. 


412 


Creative Personality 


We believe that if you will carry this thought inces¬ 
santly with you, and if you will try to realize the 
thought in the present life, this effort will result in an 
instrument forever adequate to your mind. 

All things here said concerning a body are adequate 
to the mind. You do not wish to be a disembodied 
spirit, and you do not wish to be a mind which can not 
forever know all things presented to it, and can not 
rightly use that knowledge for development and hap¬ 
piness. You may not be conscious of the fact, but 
even here, if you 1 are a growing and a successful indi¬ 
vidual, you carry the thought: A better mind, a more 
efficient mind, a broader mind, a mind more alert for 
and in touch with facts, truths, principles, beauties, 
and therefore more capable of making more and more 
its own all the fields of life into which it may be called. 
Every growing person exhibits the power of this 
thought. We are only carrying forward the same gen¬ 
eral principle into the next world which we employ 
here. If you maintain the ideal that you want a mind 
efficient for all stages of existence, the ideal will in¬ 
evitably bear fruit in that mind which shall survive the 
shock of dissolution. 

Summing up these considerations, we say that every 
intelligent person desires to maintain personality at its 
best whether “ in the body or out of the body.” This 
is a matter so important that we can well afford to ac¬ 
cept any religion which really furthers the end in view, 
and can also afford to reject any religion which does 
not. The reader of this book has discovered that the 
writer holds religions to be secondary and not primary 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 413 


as instruments of personal development. Personal de¬ 
velopment does not follow religions; religions follow 
the effort toward personal development. Your per¬ 
sonal development in the next world does not depend 
upon your religion but your religion depends upon your 
ideas of personal development. If you really desire 
personal development as the result of a continuous 
process, you will accept all things that are good in all 
religions and reject all things that are not good in any 
religion. This book is not a religious book, in the ordi¬ 
nary sense, yet all along it has sought to suggest to 
you the ideals of personal completeness and many 
methods by which that ideal may be realized, with re¬ 
ligion, in spite of religion, or regardless of anything 
so-called. 

Golden Thought: 1 am immortal, and I demand a 
body and a mind, built by myself, adequate to all 
ideal and happy reactions with the Universe wherever 
I may be found. 

The solidarity of the race means comradeship. This 
means the mating of person with persons so high, so 
free, so mutual, that not even a heaven can add any¬ 
thing thereto. The reactions of our life are not ex¬ 
hausted by our relations with material objects. These 
relations are really merely scaffoldings by means of 
which a greater edifice is constructed: That of the 
communion of heart and heart and mind and mind. 
But such a union is impossible without the external 
structure and the knowing self. How can I commune 
with my friend, if that friend can not see yonder 
star, or yonder flower crannied in the cliff’s far wall, 


414 


Creative Personality 


or the glittering white-caps of the sea upon which we 
voyage? Where is the comradeship of two ears which 
can not appreciate the wild bird’s song or Beethoven’s 
Night Sonata? Not much of companionship is there 
when one dpes not taste a two-inch beefsteak done to 
a turn. Comradeship is mutuality in the physical life 
because it is mutuality in the mental life. When that 
unseen body and that future mind have been brought 
into right relation with the external Universe, as they 
may be brought by proper thought and action idealiz¬ 
ing each self and each life, then two human beings are 
one twain, and then lasting friendships are insured and 
mating is so developed that further development for 
each individual is prophesied in the nature of things, 
and the happiness of a true comradeship sinks into in¬ 
significance the turmoil and sorrows of the ordinary 
married life. The main thing is personal completeness, 
and the idea suggested is that personal completeness in 
its very highest stages must be realized through the 
right mating of adequate bodies and adequate minds of 
perfectly adapted persons forever surrendered each to 
the other in the freedom of an untrammeled life. 
And the great means to these ends are, Thought di¬ 
rected intelligently thereto and action corresponding 
therewith. When the ends are attained each indi¬ 
vidual is in right relations with self, the other, and 
the Universe. Then the Universe will more and more 
pour itself into human person, and human person will 
more and more absorb the Universe, until, the process 
becoming universal, all Reality shall be personal in the 


Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 415 

completest sense and all person, human or otherwise, 
shall be Reality in its highest powers. 

Trusting that the pages of this book have been worth 
your while, and wishing for you the attainment of the 
great ideals suggested, I remain, 

Yours most sincerely, 

A Brother Cooperative. 


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